Villains and Happy Endings
by DhampyrX2
Summary: Regina felt as if she no longer belongs in Henry's life now that the curse has broken and Emma and Snow have returned from the Enchanted Forest. She is ready to lick her wounds and soldier on alone until and unexpected source provides her with another option.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Villains and Happy Endings

Author: DhampyrX2

Genre: Adventure/Drama/X-over

Rating: K+ to T-ish

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.

* * *

Summary: Regina feels as if she no longer belongs in Henry's life now that the curse is broken and Emma and Snow has returned from the Enchanted Forest. She is ready to lick her wounds and soldier on alone until and unexpected source provides her with another option.

* * *

Regina looked into the front window of Granny's diner and did her best not to break down crying at the sight of Henry happily spending time with Emma and the Charming Idiots at their welcome home party for Snow and Emma after Regina took in the Death Curse to save them both.

"Congratulations, you reunited a family. Maybe they'll even invite you to dinner one day," Rumpelstiltskin jibed from where he stood beside her taking in the scene.

Regina glowered at the imp that had molded her into the person she had become, doing her best to not let the Evil Queen inside reign supreme in her once again, until he finally grew bored with her silent anger and headed off back to his shop as she turned her attention back to Granny's. Part of her wanted to storm in there, kill Snow and her idiot shepherd prince, possibly burn off all of Emma's hair, and take Henry home with her. But a greater part saw how happy her son was with his family. His _real_ family. She couldn't take that from him. Not from her Little Prince. Not even to spite Snow.

And so she turned to leave instead, only to nearly collide with another of her enemies in the form of Jefferson, the Mad Hatter. The Hatter seemed ready to spout off a snide comment until he saw the unshed tears in her eyes and looked over her shoulder to see Henry through the window behind her with his biological family. If it was anything else getting to the former Evil Queen he would have reveled in her pain, but not this. Not what he faced when his little Grace chose to be raised by her curse provided family instead of him.

Still, Jefferson could not hold back a slip of the tongue as he roughly said, "So now you understand."

Regina stared at his face for several tense seconds before she nodded weakly as she responded, "We all know villains don't get happy endings."

And were it anyone else but him it might have ended there with a moment of mutual understanding and nothing more. But this was the Mad Hatter and he had a hard time letting things go when they got into his head. He pondered the former Evil Queen and former Mayor's words. "What if you could?" he asked with glint in his eye that reminded Regina far too much of Gold and his scheming.

Regina turned back to look over her shoulder into the window one last time before sighing as she replied, "He's happy. My son is happy. I can't take that from him. And he doesn't need the Evil Queen in his life, regardless."

"Very true. But what if I said there was another way for you to be a mother and start over?" Jefferson asked as his grin grew progressively more... unhinged.

Regina regarded the former resident of Wonderland with a look of contempt mixed with curiosity as she asked, "What the hell are you on about, Hatter? Henry doesn't want or need me in his life and I won't be happy without my child. I can't have it both ways."

"Not with Henry, no. But there are other options. Let's say I've been... doing some research since magic came back to Storybrooke," Jefferson replied.

Regina's look of confusion only increased as she let out a bewildered, "What?"

"Come with me, your majesty. Let's say I found something interesting looking for ways to reunite with Grace. It would not work for me, but it might work just right for you," Jefferson tempted. If this worked it would be perfect. He could give Regina what she wanted while making sure that she was out of his way for good. Maybe Grace would even be proud of him for helping the former Mayor. She always got along well enough with Henry, after all. And this would help him by ending the conflict between Regina and the Savior.

Part of Regina wanted to refuse the offer out of hand. To ignore Jefferson and return to her empty mansion and drown her sorrows in a few glasses of her homemade cider. But a greater part of her was stinging with hurt at being forgotten and cast aside again. At doing everything in her power to prove herself to Henry only to be rebuffed at every turn. Of staying in a town full of peasants that hated her just for the hope of a scrap of affection from the child she had raised for the last decade. And so, as it had many times before, the hurt won out in her heart and she followed along silently to see what the Mad Hatter had up his sleeve.

Had she stayed a few minutes longer, she would have seen Henry and Emma wondering at why she was not part of the welcome back party and come out to search for her in vain.

* * *

Half an hour later the Regina was looking at a new hat that Jefferson had made as he explained his idea to her. "You see, for a time I thought that if I could not have my daughter at my side here, I would find her elsewhere. Find a realm where perhaps I was dead or otherwise indisposed and be a father to her there. The problem was, though, that it wouldn't be my Grace. And that just wouldn't do. Not for me at least. But when I started my search I did discover something interesting," he explained animatedly.

"And that would be?" Regina asked, intrigued despite herself.

"Parallel worlds. Some all but identical to our own. Some so different they could hardly be recognized. And everything in between. Were I not so busy trying to get my daughter home I could spend years studying them," he answered with mad glint in his eyes. "Take the one I'm holding for instance, it leads to a realm similar to the Enchanted Forest where the major Kingdoms combined to form a nation similar to the one we nominally belong to in this realm called the United States of Auradon. They even elected the ruling family of their choice to hold court over them."

Regina regarded the hat with curiosity before snorting as she asked, "Let me guess, the Idiots are king and queen?"

"Not at all. Belle and Beast actually," Jefferson replied with a smirk.

Regina stared at the Hatter for several moments before snorting again as she replied, "I can see why you dismissed a realm where Rumple was ruling. Even with Belle there to keep him in line."

"Ah, but the Beast there isn't out resident imp and dealer of antiquities, Your Majesty. If anything, our personas there seem to more closely resemble their... theatrical counterparts. Although their version of Belle does bear a striking resemblance to the Blue Fairy. Had she not already birthed an heir I would think Mother Superior had been playing with forbidden magics on the side," Jefferson explained.

"As fascinating as this is, Jefferson, what does it have to do with me?" Regina asked after a moment to ponder what he said.

"Why don't you use a little of your magic on the mirror to help peek into the land of Auradon and I'll show you?" Jefferson offered.

Regina looked reluctant as she replied, "I told Henry I wouldn't."

"The same Henry you're all but giving up to your mortal enemies in order to make him happy?" Jefferson asked. At the sight of her intensifying glare he amended, "This isn't the Dark Curse, your highness. Just some power to show you a few things. A little preview, if you will."

"Careful how you speak of my son Hatter," Regina warned darkly. "But if it will help you to get to the point, then fine. Give me the damned hat," she added as she took the object in hand and concentrated her power into it before forming a tendril of purple energy between it and the mirror in the room. Soon, the mirror lit up like a television screen to reveal what looked like a much older, fatter, Regina dressed in what appeared to be her stereotypical dress from Disney's version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She took in the image for a moment before scowling as she spat, "I hope for your sake that you have more to show me than this."

"Relax, Regina. It just naturally keyed into your counterpart first since you powered the spell," the Hatter explained as he took the hat in hand and concentrated, making the image fall back to reveal the Evil Queen of Auradon along with...

"Is that Mal and Cruella?" she asked in shock. Maleficent had died by Emma's hands in her dragon form just before the breaking of the Dark Curse and as far she knew Cruella was nowhere to be found in Storybrooke.

"Indeed. And Jafar. Meet the nominal rulers of the prison colony known as the Isle of the Lost," Jefferson explained.

"How delightful," Regina deadpanned. "So we were all captured and locked away in this world?"

"Yes and no. First you were all killed. Or at least most of you were, just as you died in your Disney versions. But you were all resurrected as part of some spell related to the formation of Auradon. I'm not entirely certain of the details, but I think it was something about balancing magic so they could use it to power their world. They have technology slightly more advanced than our own here in town, but it's all powered by magic rather than things like coal and oil. Anyway, the point is everyone was brought back, then rounded up and placed on an island off the coast with a barrier around it that prevents the use of magic. Think of it as an anti-Storybrooke in that regard," Jefferson said with a shrug.

"And you're showing me this why, again? Besides proof that there are versions of the so-called heroes even more callous than the ones here," Regina insisted.

"I'm getting there, your highness. Patience is a virtue," Jefferson assured her.

"If you asked anyone in town they would not use the word 'virtuous' to describe me, Hatter. Get to the point before I decide to leave," Regina growled.

"Ah, but that is part of the point, dear lady. Compared to your counterpart in Auradon you are quite virtuous. You love your son. You wanted revenge on Snow White for more than petty jealousy. This version of you is practically a caricature compared to the Evil Queen I know and loathe," Jefferson explained.

"And what, you wanted to show me I could be worse?" Regina prodded, knowing the Hatter would draw this out for hours without some kind of direction.

"Well you could, but no. Let me get to 'the point' as it were," Jefferson replied as the image blurred. "Now where is she?" he muttered for a time until the image settled on a girl with an olive complexion and streaks of blue in her hair talking to and applying make-up to a purple-haired girl that looked roughly the same age. "There we are," he noted proudly.

"What is this?" Regina asked, fascinated, as she took in the image. The purple haired girl looked so much like Maleficent when she and Regina had first met it was uncanny, minus the hair color and an oddly familiar shape to the girl's nose and chin that she could not place. "Is that... Maleficent's daughter?"

"The one with the purple hair? Yes. But take a closer look at the one in blue. Notice anything about _her_?" the Hatter leered as his face lit with anticipation.

Truthfully, Regina tried to keep her attention on the other girl because the one with the blue hair looked a little _too_ familiar at first glance.

 _"...Are you afraid of her?" Maleficent's daughter asked as the image began projecting sound to the room._

 _"Sometimes. My mother is not a bundle of roses when she doesn't get her way. Just ask Snow White..." the blue-haired girl replied before the sound faded away._

"Ask Snow? Are you trying to tell me that that's...?" Regina asked in shock. It wasn't possible. Rumple had given her the curse to ensure she could never...

"She is indeed. Witness the fruit of your other self's loins; Evie. An intelligent and hopeful young girl being ground down as her unloving mother tries to mold her into the perfect trophy wife to regain and improve her own political position. Sound familiar oh daughter of the Queen of Hearts?" Jefferson asked with a dark grin.

Regina just started at the pair until a blond boy arrived and picked up Mal's daughter for what appeared to be the start of a date. "Who is her father?" Regina demanded as her mind went unbidden to her lost Daniel and to an interfering green "moth" and a man with a lion tattoo that she never identified.

"Nobody knows. As with the dragon's daughter, rather unimaginatively named Mal, the identity of the fathers was kept quiet. Although speculation seems to center around the huntsman and Lord Hades for your little girl on the Isle. The people of Auradon don't care enough to even speculate," Jefferson noted.

"You've obviously been watching this world for a while," Regina pointed out.

"Well first I thought of taking my counterpart's place. Then I was going to figure out a way to get enough fairy dust to pop in and kill the girl as some way of hurting you by proxy since I knew it would be too dangerous to think of coming near Henry," Jefferson explained callously.

"What!?" Regina demanded sharply.

"You separated me from my child and left me trapped in a single realm for nearly three decades, Regina. I was just going to return half of the favor," Jefferson explained disinterestedly, only to back away a step at the look in Regina's eye. "Relax. Clearly I changed my mind."

"And why did you do that?" Regina seethed back.

Jefferson's face grew a bit sad as he replied, "It wouldn't have mattered."

"What the hell does that mean, you lunatic?" Regina hissed.

If anything Jefferson looked even sadder as he replied, "This version of the Evil Queen, this Grimhilde, takes after your dear mommy-dearest in more than just ambitions. She could care less about her own offspring. It's not hard at all to imagine _her_ as a child of the Queen of Hearts. Why try to hurt a version of you that would not have been hurt beyond no longer being able to use her daughter as a pawn?" the Hatter asked.

Regina felt as if she were punched in the gut at his answer before she insisted, "This still doesn't tell me why you were showing me all of this."

Jefferson's face lit into a smile as he replied, "This world was useless to me. But for you, I think it could be exactly what you need."

Regina's expression told him he had better keep talking if he wanted to keep the whole of his person intact as he replied, "Think about it Regina. What do you have here? A son reunited with his blood family that looks down his nose at you. A town full of former peasants too thick to realize your curse upgraded the standard of living for them beyond what they could ever imagine while they glare at you for making it happen. A stepdaughter that was already talking about exiling you as she tried to find a way BACK to the realm where you could never be more than a villain."

"Thank you for reminding me why my life is terrible," Regina bitterly noted.

"But does it have to be? Who says you can't take your exile into your own hands? That you can't change the game on your adversaries even as they think they won? Look at that girl. All she, and Maleficent's daughter for that matter, ever wanted was to be loved by their respective mothers. She needs that in her life. She needs an Evil Queen capable of giving a damn about her. Someone that will be thrilled to see her doing well on a test. Someone that will bake for her and tell her that she doesn't need some sad version of Prince Charming to make her life complete. She needs _you_ , Regina," Jefferson pitched.

"You can't be serious," Regina noted with a shocked expression.

"Why not? Your happy ending was being a mother to a child that loves you. Henry clearly has too much of his birth mother and his grandparents to be that. He's not even a teenager and he's acting like he has the right to judge you. This girl wants nothing more than for her mother to love her. And you are her mother, after a fashion. You can be free of this town, free of its judgment and scorn, and be the mother you wanted to be at the same time," Jefferson insisted.

"And you get me out of the way in the process," Regina noted flatly.

"There is that. If it will sweeten the deal, I swear I will never raise a hand against Henry. Grace thinks of the boy as a friend anyway," the Hatter explained.

"I should have expected something this insane coming from you," Regina stalled as she thought about what he was offering.

"Take a day or two to think it over, Regina. I'm offering you a way to start over that the Savior will never be able to mess up. This isn't you being tossed over the line into a world Sheriff Swan knows so she can find you and make use of you when she needs you. You'll be beyond them all. And besides, you said yourself that Henry is happy as things stand. But this girl needs you. Evie needs you," Jefferson prodded. At the look of indecision on her face he added, "Tell you what, take the hat with you and watch that world for a few days. Get to know the girl that should be your daughter. And, after let's say a week, come see me and let me know. Does that sound reasonable?"

Regina wanted to reject it outright. To ignore the Hatter's ramblings for the insanity they were, but the image of the group at Granny's today held her back. "Fine. One week. Then you'll have my answer."

* * *

And so, throughout that week Regina Mills stayed all but holed up in her home as she watched the Events of Evie's life unfold in her bedroom mirror. She watched the 'villain kids' plans to steal the Fairy Godmother's wand (not Blue apparently, but Cinderella's Fairy Godmother). Not that she had anything against putting one of the irritating moths in her place. She witnessed the tense and ridiculous video call to the Isle that proved _this_ version of herself and Maleficent were both pale shadows to Regina and her deceased friend. She saw the disaster that was Family Day as most of Auradon outside of Prince Ben seemed to turn on the four friends. She saw the coronation as Maleficent attacked and was defeated by Evie, Mal, and the others. And oh how she would have liked to have teased _her_ Mal over how Evie had blinded this much dumber version in that fight.

Yes, Regina saw many things. But what was even more telling to her was what she did not see. Over the course of the week she never once saw Henry and Miss Swan. In fact the only interaction she had was an occasional coffee with a side of terse words and tense glares at Granny's. It truly seemed to her as if there was nothing left binding her to this town now that Henry had made his choice.

And so, a week later she found herself in the Hatter's workshop, hat in hand, as she thought over everything she had seen. Evie did need a mother. And Regina wanted desperately to BE a mother again. And she would be lying if she said the thought of a child of her own blood did not intrigue her.

Thus, with letters for Henry and Emma waiting for be delivered to the Sheriff's station with the next day's mail (which meant Regina estimated that Miss Swan would get to reading hers in about four days), a suitcase full of personal items like pictures and her favorite spellbooks and cookbooks (okay magic MAY have been used to take more than should have fit in there) at her side, and a sad smile on her lips Regina found herself saying, "Let's do this."

And although he would never admit it, Jefferson did feel almost envious of Regina's cool confidence as she did what he had been too scared to do. She was cutting ties and starting over in a place where she could be happy. He would never like Regina. But in that moment as the hat formed a portal and swallowed her up to send her to Auradon with no real way back, he wished her well. After all she was at least out of his way.

* * *

 **Author's note:** Yeah, I started another one. I blame too much OUAT fics for this. As always feedback is greatly appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Auradon: Present Day**_

Regina wanted to curse Jefferson more than she usually did as the word warped around her only to coalesce back into being a good eight feet above a decorative pond in one of the courtyard areas of Auradon Prep. Needless to say, anyone that saw it would say that Regina's arrival created quite a splash.

The former mayor of Storybrooke muttered darkly to herself about the condition of her stylish red silk top as she struggled to her feet and pushed the damp hair from her eyes only to come face to face with a much less irksome surprise as a pair of eyes the same shade of brown as he own met her framed by blue and black hair.

"Mommy?" Evie gasped as she recognized the face the woman that had appeared above the pond out of thin air as she and Mal had made their way toward their shared dorm room.

Regina looked at the face of this girl, her alternate self's _daughter_ and felt a connection the same way she had when she first held Henry in her arms as a baby as she smiled wryly and replied, "Not... exactly, my dear."

Anything else beyond that would have to explained later, though as guards dressed similar to Secret Service agents from the Land Without Magic swarmed the area and began to march her off to parts unknown.

Mal and Evie stood there in shock for several seconds before Mal asked, "Did I just lose it or did that look a lot like your mom, E?"

"Uh huh," Evie replied worriedly.

"And was it me or did she just suddenly lose like fifty or sixty pounds since when we saw her on the video chat before family day two weeks ago?" Mal continued.

"Sure looked like it. She always was upset that she could never get rid of my baby weight," Evie commented with a wince at the memories of Queen Grimhilde's... displeasure over that fact.

"And did she look a _lot_ younger to you too?" Mal inquired.

"Kind of. It was hard to tell with all that wet hair in her face," Evie responded, still stunned at the encounter.

"Yeah. And since when did she not wear a ton of blue eye-shadow? Or her royal robes? I mean, she was in what looked like a power dress with a pencil skirt," Mal elaborated.

"First time I've seen her like that, except for bedclothes, she never wore anything else," Evie explained.

"This is going to be something really strange, isn't it?" Mal asked.

"Probably," Evie nodded back in agreement.

* * *

In what felt like a matter a minutes Regina found herself sitting in a sparse room that looked like a stereotypical interrogation room from television with a nothing more than a towel to keep herself occupied as she did her best to dry her hair out and try not to grumble about the anti-magic wards on the room. They left her there for at least an hour by her reckoning, probably trying to make her nervous so she would divulge information more readily. Well they were in for a surprise if they thought that. After all, she had lived 28 years without her powers in a town full of people that she loathed, she could deal with a few hours of interrogation. Still she wondered how similar the wards were to the ones woven into the Dark Curse?

Her mental musings were cut short as the door opened to reveal a security guard similar to the ones that collected her earlier and what looked like the local Fairy Godmother herself. Regina set down the towel in the table in the room and did her best to smooth out her hair and clothes before putting on the neutral expression she wore most of her tenure as mayor as she nodded politely to them both gave the a neutral, "Good afternoon."

It was clear the Fairy Godmother was going to take the lead in the interrogation as she smiled nervously and replied, "And good afternoon to you as well, Lady Grimhilde."

Regina held up her hand to pause things there as she informer her, "That isn't my name. And I'm certain you already checked to make sure that _she_ is still locked up where she belongs in your local prison colony."

"I see. And what should we call you then?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"Regina. My full name is Regina Mills. And before you ask, yes I _was_ the Evil Queen where I come from. I'm probably a full genetic match for yours, in fact. But I'm not from Auradon, or any version of this reality, that you are familiar with. So please, call me Regina or Ms. Mills," Regina informed her.

"Alright, Regina. That would be a good place to start things off, then," the Fairy Godmother responded with a tense smile. "How about we begin with asking where you did come from and how you got here?"

"I was born and raised in the Enchanted Forest in King Leopold's kingdom, but my last residence was a small town known as Storybrooke, Maine, in a country called the United States of America. As to how I got here, I had help from an... acquaintance of mine," Regina explained. There was no way she would ever refer to Jefferson as a friend of hers or vice-versa.

"And that acquaintance would be?" the Fairy Godmother prodded.

"Jefferson, although you would refer to him here as the Mad Hatter. Or at least our version of the Mad Hatter," Regina explained.

"I see. And how did he send you here?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"With one of the dimensional portals he makes with his hats. He had apparently been watching this realm for a while," Regina replied.

"Okay," Fairy Godmother responded, mentally taking note to ask later about the Mad Hatter's ability to traverse dimensions later in the interview. "And do you know why?"

"He is called the _Mad_ Hatter for a reason, dear," Regina sassed back. She waited half a second before she continued, "But he did confide that he discovered your land while searching various alternate realities. He's been in a... contentious custody battle over his daughter and thought he might find a reality where he had been killed where he could take the place of his local counterpart. Although he claimed to give that plan up because it still wouldn't be _his_ daughter he was raising."

The Fairy Godmother looked more that little disturbed as she replied, "That certainly sounds... troubling."

"If it makes you feel any better I'm almost certain he was telling the truth about his intentions and he only sent me here as a way to keep me from interfering with his attempts to reunite with his daughter in our reality," Regina assured her.

"And why would you be a hindrance to him?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"Because I placed her with her foster family, whom she chose to remain with," Regina explained. "You see, I was actually the mayor of the town at the time."

"And he was a poor father?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"He does love his daughter deeply. Almost to the point of obsession I would say. But love alone doesn't make one a fit parent. And the Hatter has a nasty habit of forgetting things when one obsession or another takes hold of him. That's not exactly a healthy environment for a pre-teen girl to grow up in," Regina replied.

"What about her mother?" the Fairy Godmother inquired.

"Dead, as far as I know. I never met her," Regina replied with a shrug.

"I see. And were you sent here against your will?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"Not exactly. The Hatter actually offered me the chance to come here. Although I'm sure my... landing spot was his sick little idea of a joke," Regina with replied with a scowl.

"Hmm, indeed. And what prompted you to want to... visit?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"Not visit, dear. I'm here to stay. Without some kind of dedicated portal to use trips like this are one way unless the Hatter comes with you to guide you back," Regina clarified.

"I see. And what made decide to come where to stay?" the Fairy Godmother pressed.

Regina's expression grew sad for a moment before she straightened and replied, "Let's say I was facing a similar custody battle and decided it was better for everyone to if I made a fresh start somewhere else instead of remaining where I wasn't wanted or needed."

"Could you elaborate on that for me a bit, dear?" the Fairy Godmother insisted politely.

Regina sighed in annoyance before she rolled her eyes and replied, "The town I was in, Storybrooke, was cursed so that the local inhabitants, that all originally came from the Enchanted Forest, had no idea who they were. They were essentially reliving the same day over and over again for years. We were all in a Realm referred to as the Land Without Magic in a different reality than the one we were born in. The only ones that knew who they had originally been were myself, Jefferson, and Mr Gold, who had originally been known as Rumplstiltskin; or, if you prefer, the Dark One.

And, after eighteen years of being surrounded by people that didn't even remember that they hated me or why they should, I suppose I was beginning to get more than a little lonely. Gold helped me arrange to adopt a baby from a nearby city and I raised him as my own for the next ten years. Unfortunately, as he came from outside of Storybrooke, he actually aged and started to notice that things were different around him. Eventually he got his hands on an enchanted book that told the true stories of each of the local residents and got it into his head that since I had once been the Evil Queen I didn't really love him. He stole my credit card and ran away to track down his birth mother, Emma Swan, who had apparently been banished to the Land Without Magic from the Enchanted Forest by her parents just before the curse that sent us all to Storybrooke was cast, and brought her back.

Through a series of rather ridiculous circumstances, his birth mother was elected the new Sheriff as the previous one passed away and she made it her mission to interfere with me wherever she could. Fast forward through a year of aggravations and arguments between us to my son, Henry, accidentally getting infected with a sleeping curse. Ms. Swan revived him with True Love's Kiss, which in turn broke the Dark Curse on the town, reawakening their memories. Suddenly everyone hated me again and my son was all too happy to continue to believe I am irredeemably evil. You have a few more months of problems, including Rumpelstiltskin releasing a wraith to try to kill me and the townspeople illegally throwing me out of office despite the fact there was not even so much as a special election to find my replacement. I was being treated like some kind of unholy combination of town pariah and a ticking timebomb as my own son insisted I was not his mother despite raising him and loving him will all my heart for eleven years, and that if I ever wanted to be part of his life I had to fit his idealized 11-year-old notion of heroics, up to and including refusing to use my magic. Except, of course, when I had to use that magic to absorb a death curse to save his mother and grandmother, thus putting the town in direct peril as it left it open to my mother arriving to cause problems."

The Fairy Godmother seemed to try to digest what Regina has said for several moment before she asked, "Your mother?"

Regina sighed again before she explained, "Cora Mills. The miller's daughter in the original story of Rumpelstiltskin. Although she later came to be known by another name: The Queen of Hearts. Picture what you know of your Grimhilde, give her a much nastier mean streak, and and then add a taste for ripping out and crushing the hearts of those that oppose her with her magic. Needless to say, the thought of her being anywhere close to reaching me or Henry did not sit well with me, especially when I was the one to push her through the looking glass and banish her to Wonderland originally. But the locals could have cared less about that threat. And, after a while, it became abundantly clear that my son was happier and better off with his... birth family. So, when I saw this place and the Hatter offered me the chance to make a clean break from the heartache and memories around me, I took it."

"That is quite a tale," the Fairy Godmother replied.

"Yes, I'm sure it would make for a compelling evening drama on television with the right writers," Regina noted sarcastically.

The Fairy Godmother chuckled a bit as she conceded, "Sounds a little dark for my taste, but I could see the appeal. Now, tell me more about this curse that brought you to this Land Without Magic?"

"Do you want to know the origin of it, the true purpose behind it, or who cast it?" Regina asked tiredly. She already suspected there was a spell on the room compelling her to tell the whole and unadulterated truth in addition to the wards against her using her magic. She was being way too candid with the oversized moth in front of her. Still, it was probably better to get all of this out of the way now than have it come back to bite her later.

"All of the above, if you don't mind," the Fairy Godmother replied.

"Fine. As you probably suspected since I kept my memories, I cast the curse. It was supposed to give me my happy ending while spiting my enemies and denying them theirs at the same time. Only it didn't work out that way. Honestly, I should have known better considering both the source and the fact Mal wanted nothing to do with it," Regina replied with a sense of resignation.

"Mal?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"Maleficent. She had stolen the curse from its creator and I had to battle her just to get hold of it. I should have listened to her and let things go. Anyway, as you could probably imply by who else did not forget, Rumple created the curse. Only it turns out that it was solely for his own purposes and I was being used as his pawn. Not that the Dark One using people was anything new," Regina explained.

"And what was his purpose in getting you to cast this curse?" the Fairy Godmother inquired.

"Apparently Rumpelstiltskin's son ran away from him and was sucked up by a portal centuries ago. Through his powers he discovered the boy was in the Land Without Magic years in the future. The whole mess was to get himself there so he could get to his son. Looking back, the imp arranged everything. He trained my mother in dark magic, then trained me after she destroyed my life and basically molded me into the Evil Queen. He convinced Snow and Charming to put their daughter into the wardrobe to send her to the Land Without Magic to protect her from the curse, then arranged for me to happen to adopt _her_ son years later so she would be drawn to the town to break the curse and allow him to leave the borders to search for his child. Last I heard he was even calling in a favor from Ms Swan to have her find his son directly in the outside world. Miserable little cheat played each and every one of us, and yet I'm the one that's reviled for it," Regina groused hatefully.

"He sounds quite unpleasant," the Fairy Godmother remarked.

"You have no idea. The thought of him almost made me reconsider coming here," Regina noted.

"How is that?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"Let's just say in my world he wore many hats. He was the Crocodile that took Captain Hook's hand, for instance. Although, in all fairness, his wife _had_ abandoned him and their son to run off with Hook before he gained the powers of the Dark One. But the one that really stood out, at least for me, was that he was well, the Beast as well. True love to Belle and everything," Regina confided.

"You're saying this Dark One in your reality is _King Adam?_ " the Fairy Godmother asked in alarm.

"Not exactly. Jefferson and I both checked that pretty thoroughly using his hat. Your Beast is a separate person from both the Crocodile and Rumpelstiltskin from what I can see. You have nothing to fear from him from what I could determine. Trust me, I would not have come near a world ruled by Rumple if I could help it. Not after all that he's done," Regina explained.

"Still, something like that, it sounds so..." the Fairy Godmother trailed off.

"Horrific? Welcome to my world. I think you can see why getting away from it began to sound better and better once the option presented itself," Regina noted wryly.

From there the interrogation continued for several hours, going over each detail multiple times so that the Fairy Godmother could give a full and complete report to the newly crowned King Benjamin and his parents both. Although it was clear within the first couple of hours that Regina meant no harm and was more interested in learning about Evie than anything nefarious. By the time it was all said and done the Fairy Godmother was firmly in favor of offering Regina Mills asylum in Auradon on a probationary period with the option to apply for permanent residence at the King's discretion.

* * *

 _ **Storybooke: one week later**_

Regina was right in her assumption that it would take Emma Swan more than a couple of days to discover the letters included in her incoming work mail. Although in Emma's defense she was out of town tracking down Gold's son, who also happened to be her ex-boyfriend Neal and Henry's biological father. So the fact it took her a whole week to discover the letter could be excused. Although once she read the letter she was cursing up a storm over both its contents and the lost week itself as it was that much more time for Regina to lose herself in the greater world at large.

"Damn it, Regina, are you kidding me? How in the hell do you figure _this_ is what Henry would want?" Emma muttered to herself as she reread the contents.

 _Dear Ms. Swan,_

 _By the time you receive this you will have likely begun to notice my absence from Storybooke. Or perhaps you haven't noticed yet and this will be how you discover it. It has been a week, after all, and I have not heard from anyone in this town, not even Henry. People can say many unpleasant things about me, my dear, and most of them are true. But one thing you can not claim of me is that I am too unintelligent to know when I have lost. Henry is yours and he clearly prefers it that way. I see now that I will never be anything more to him than a horrible storybook villain and I have made peace with that. The fact that he is happy with you and your parents acting as his family is enough for me. But, that being said, I can't find the strength to stay here and watch it like some demented peeping tom. Instead, I have chosen to concede defeat to you and Snow White both and withdraw from the field of battle so to speak. I have left to a land you will not find through means I will not divulge. Suffice it to say that even your self-lauded skills at finding people will be unable to locate me. Tell the people the Evil Queen has been vanquished, for you will not see me again._

 _That being said, I implore you as Regina the mother to take care of Henry. He has chosen to give you without question the love and devotion I fought to earn for the whole of his life. That is the most precious of gifts Ms Swan and I would not see you squander it. Be the mother he deserves as well as the mother he prefers. Be for him what I failed to be despite my best efforts. And, should he ask some day, tell him that I love him and that I will always love him with all of my heart. I have given him the best gift I know to give, his freedom._

 _With that being said you will find enclosed in this envelope several legal papers, including the dissolution of Henry's adoption, the naming of yourself as his legal guardian, inheritance papers naming Henry as the sole beneficiary of a trust account that includes all my property and assets here in Storybrooke and the greater Land Without Magic in general, and the title of my Mercedes, which I leave to you. You'll excuse me for saying so, but I prefer the thought of Henry riding in something a little safer than that rusted out piece of junk you call an automobile. If it is still running at the time feel free to give it to Henry when he is old enough to drive if he wants it._

 _There are so many more things I could say Ms Swan, but I don't have the energy in me to ramble on. Instead I will simply say be careful and take care of my son. And should my mother somehow follow you and Ms Blanchard back from the Enchanted Forest, do what you must to stop her. As bad you have assumed me to be in the past I am nothing compared to her. She will do anything in her power to get what she wants. Do not let that happen and keep her away from our... your son at all costs. I am counting on you for this, Ms Swan, as I will have no way back from where I have gone nor will I be able to check on him. His safety is solely in your hands now._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Regina Mills._

Emma looked over the legal papers absently, even as she glared at the letter and its content for a third time. How in the hell was she supposed to tell the kid that his mother somehow skipped town without anyone noticing? For all that he liked to claim that Regina wasn't his mom, Emma's "super power" told her that he was lying. Henry loved Regina the same way she loved him but now they as a family had managed to somehow push away the most stubborn and contrary woman Emma had ever met in her life.

"Goddammit, Regina," the Savior reiterated tiredly.

* * *

 **Author's note:** Okay here's the next installment. As always your feedback is greatly appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Auradon: Present Day_**

Regina was set up secure quarters after her rather lengthy interview, followed by another one the next day that reiterated all of what she told them. For the most part she was completely honest, which again she attributed to some kind of spell on the rooms. Still she was given meals and her quarters, while not on par with her mansion in Storybrooke, were probably nicer then the cramped apartment where the Charming clan currently resided back home. She was even allowed a television and limited internet access.

Although the lack of a proper kitchen to cook anything did bother her. She was used to cooking being her personal outlet for her frustrations over the years where she had been denied her magic by the Dark Curse. It was... off putting to have something she had come to take so much pride in denied her. Although she did appreciate the Fairy Godmother using her own magic to unshrink Regina's luggage so she would at least have access to a few changes of clothes while the powers that be decided on what to do with her. For now, all she could do was wait and hope she was allowed to stay. She would feel quite the fool to go to all this trouble to get a new start and not even be allowed to speak more than a single sentence in passing to Evie.

* * *

Speaking of Evie, she and the other Villain Kids (or VK's as many of the Auradonian kids had started to call them at Audrey's insistence) were in a meeting with Ben, his parents, and the Fairy Godmother to discuss the matter of one Regina Mills.

"So... she's my mom, but a different one from another dimension?" Evie asked with a look of skepticism.

"As best as we cal tell she's been truthful to us about that, child," the Fairy Godmother informed the daughter of Grimhilde. "And your mother is definitely still on the Isle of the Lost. Master Yen Sid confirmed that personally yesterday and today."

"That's a relief," Mal and Carlos both sighed in unison. None of the Descendant children from the Isle relished the thought of anyone else getting free to seek retribution after they had very publicly chosen the side of good and opposed Maleficent during Ben's coronation.

"So what brought her here?" Evie asked after a pause to consider matters.

"From what we can ascertain, she's looking for a fresh start. She was apparently in a rather heated custody battle over her adopted son with his birth mother. It seems the child had learned of her past as the Evil Queen and had not taken it well. She chose to give him up rather than force a custody battle when he clearly wanted to stay with his biological family instead," Queen Belle explained.

"And she just let that go? Doesn't sound much like our Evil Queen, does she?" Carlos scoffed. Evie had been something of a big sister to him on the Isle growing up and he knew full well just how heartless and cruel Grimhilde could be.

"She would never admit it, of course, but I could see within a few moments of discussing it that the whole matter left her rather heartbroken. I would never say anything to her about it, but the way it sounded gave me the impression that her local version of the Mad Hatter took terrible advantage of her at her weakest moment to convince her to come here. Very few of the local versions of us in this Storybrooke seem as... nice as their counterparts in Auradon," The Fairy Godmother informed the kids with a wince. Had it not involved Evie directly to some degree, she would have preferred to keep most of this to herself. Both Storybrooke and the Enchanted Forest that spawned it seemed like very dark places to her. The fact Regina could not see that darkness beyond a sense of detached cynicism spoke for itself as well.

"For example, it appears my counterpart is actually Rumpelstiltskin, and is one of the major villains of the land," King Adam offered with a look of disbelief. It was still hard for him to picture. Or to imagine his counterpart was also the inspiration for Tick-Tock Croc. Or that Hook was hunting _him_ there rather than running like the coward he was.

"Like Carlos said, sounds different than our version. I can't see Grimhilde being broken up over Evie choosing a different side of things. Just mad she's not getting that castle with the mother-in-law wing she always harped about," Mal sniffed angrily. Evie's mother had been the closest to attentive of any of their parents, but she was not what one would call caring or pleasant.

"Yes well, Grimhilde's faults don't all seem to be shared my Miss Regina. It's almost puzzling that such a darker world actually produced a... lighter Evil Queen. I could even sense some light magic within her buried down deep and had Tinker Bell confirm it for me. Regina is not nearly as... troubled as your mother, Evie. Although she is heartbroken over how things progressed with her son. And she has made some rather poor choices," The Fairy Godmother explained.

"What do you mean," Evie asked, almost afraid to know what this Regina had done.

From there the kids from the Isle were given a basic rundown of what Regina revealed during her interrogation. The adults explained everything from her ascension to the throne by marrying King Leopold, to her coming to rule alone, to her hunting of Snow White, to her war with Snow for lack of a better term, to her being tricked into eventually casting the Dark Curse.

At that point Mal held up her hand in confusion and asked, "So the curse was to bring an entire kingdom of people living in world with Medieval science and tech forcefully into the modern world where they all knew what was going on and got to live their lives in peace even if they did not remember their original lives? Kind of tame for a Dark Curse. I mean taking a bunch of peasants and giving them running water, TV's, and internet access does not sound all that evil. Or even like a bad trade."

"I tend to agree. Goodness knows there was more than a little adjustment to the advances made with magic here to provide those amenities to the people of Auradon. But, as Regina explained to Fairy Godmother, it seems the whole thing was set up by their Rumpelstiltskin to get closer to his son. He planned everything, including keeping Snow White's daughter Emma out of the curse so she would age, and arranging for Regina to adopt Emma's son as her own so he would bring his mother to break the curse at the right time. He literally played them all right from the start," Belle explained with a scowl. She did not care for this version of her husband at all.

"Even more than that, your highness. She was reluctant to talk about it in detail, but I got the impression that he had started this all going back to her mother before she was ever born. Remember that before her mother apparently became the Queen of Hearts she was the miller's daughter that struck the bargain with Rumpelstiltskin to spin straw into gold. And that bargain was for..." the Fairy Godmother trailed off.

"Her first born child," Belle finished for her. She shook her head in amazement as she said, "I think the Hatter taking advantage to send her here was the happiest accident that woman could have had."

Evie paled as she heard some of this other version of her mother's life. She knew her grandfather had been cruel to Grimhilde, of course. In fact the dwarfs were the ones that helped her mother to trap his spirit in her magic mirror originally to try to help her when she had been a mostly innocent young woman. But it sounds like this _Regina_ had it much worse. Still it raised a question she had to ask, "So is she a villain? Regina, I mean?"

All the adults shared a look before the Fairy Godmother sighed as she responded, "That's a question we've been wrestling with. If you ask her, she would say yes. Her opinion is that the things she did over the years could not and should not be forgiven. They were, after all, the reason for the rift between her and her son despite him being been born decades after they had stopped. And I get the feeling she might had done some bad things just before the curse was broken as she felt she was backed into a corner, although she has not told us what she did, if anything. But for the most part she seems to have put that behind her. Between the truth spells used to interrogate criminals and her general demeanor I don't think she's any kind of danger to anyone here."

"And her behavior as a monarch was not that much worse than some of the members of the ruling council. From her perspective she was hunting an outlaw looking to overthrow her in the form of Snow White. There was more going on than a matter of vanity run rampant as there had been with Grimhilde," Adam interjected solemnly.

"She also seems to feel genuinely remorseful over her past. Although from what we are told she'll hide it under layer of defensiveness and sarcasm," Belle added with a twinkle in her eye as she looked at Mal.

"Well I think we have some experience dealing with that kind of attitude here lately," Ben added with a nudge to the shoulder of his girlfriend that made her blush as she scowled at him playfully.

"So what are we going to do with her then?" Jay asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Well, we're not sure yet, Jay. We were hoping that Mal, Evie, and Carlos at least would be willing to speak to her at some point and help... feel her out so to speak. She seemed very interested in meeting Evie especially," the Fairy Godmother replied with a worried look.

"So what, she wants to replace one kid with another or something?" Mal asked, offended on Evie's behalf.

"No. Not at all. But she did admit to me at one point that the reason she adopted her son is that she was incapable of having one of her own. A daughter of hers by blood is so foreign to her that she admitted to being curious to find out what you're like in person, Evie. And I will tell you all that she is not a fan of Grimhilde's. Some of her descriptions of her counterpart here were... colorfully descriptive."

"Like what?' Carlos asked, curious to know what this version of the Evil Queen thought of Evie's mother.

"Ahem. I believe one of the phrases she used was 'over-sized, delusional, un-feeling sow' when Grimhilde's opinion of how Evie should pursue a suitor came up in conversation. Apparently she does now care for pushing marriages for the purpose of social standing as she was forced into one with Leopold by her own mother," the Fairy Godmother explained as she tried to hold back a grin.

The Villain Kids were not as restrained as everyone but Evie had rather amused expressions on their faces. Evie herself was just in shock that someone that was essentially her mother could have such a low opinion for how Grimhilde had raised her.

"So I take it you want us to try to pump her for some more information before you decide whether to let her run loose or ship her to the isle and let her confront the... sow directly?" Mal asked with a wicked smile.

Belle was fighting a losing battle to hold back her own grin as she answered, "That's the general idea. She's also interested in meeting you and Carlos, Mal, as she confided that Maleficent had been her only close friend during her time as the Evil Queen and she had at least been cordial toward Cruella. The thought of them having children, as they did not when she knew them, was fascinating to her."

"What about my dad?" Jay asked, wanting to know in spite of himself.

"From what we understand, Agrabah is actually connected to the realm of Wonderland in her reality, which is a kind of pocket universe through the looking glass, so she only knew of your father by reputation, Jay. With her mother banished to Wonderland she had no desire to ever go there personally," King Adam explained.

"Did she say why she sent her mother there? I mean if she as all into the whole 'off with their heads stuff _our_ Queen of Hearts is fond of I could see her point, but that's still her mom," Mal asked.

All of the adults winced again and shared a look before the Fairly Godmother explained, "She did make some rather uncomfortable comparisons with her mother, Cora, and Grimhilde in terms of... choice of parenting style. Only Cora tended to use magic for her reprimands, and apparently had a penchant for taking hearts, physically, using her magic to earn her title. She... apparently did it to Regina's first and only love in front of her the evening before she forced her daughter to marry King Leopold."

That information brought the mood of the room down to one reminiscent of a funeral home as the words sank in. "Are we sure she's not an older Evie instead of a strangely younger Evil Queen? Because that sounds more like something EQ would do," Mal asked as Evie shuddered at the thought of her mother doing something like that to Doug.

"I will admit the thought had crossed my mind, but we did a check with magic and, impossible as it sounds, she's nearly a 90% match, genetically, to Grimhilde. There are some variances, probably in part to her different background in her reality, but she is the Evil Queen in most ways that matter.

"Okay. So again, what are you looking for with us. I guess I can understand her curiosity where we're concerned, but where do we come in?" Mal pressed.

"Well, if you agree, we'd like you four to... vet her for lack of a better term. Try to get a feel for what she's here for and if what we've learned is genuine. If she gets your approval, we plan to offer a job here in Auradon on a trial basis before offering her permanent residence," Belle explained.

"What kind of job?" Carlos asked as he cocked his head to the side in curiosity.

"Well... actually it has to do with what we've learned from you four about the Isle through your talking to Ben and Jane an Doug. Since she apparently had a lot of experience as an administrator acting as the mayor for her town we'd like to see if she could look through a few paper trails in regards to some of the issues we've discovered with the Isle of the Lost.

"What kind of issues?" Mal asked, somewhat defensive as her home came into the conversation.

"Mal, conditions on the Isle are not what they should have been. You might have been getting goods without magic and some second-hand donations for luxury items, but you never should have been getting _spoiled food_ as part of your rations. My parents would never have signed off on something like that. Neither would the other royals. They were up in arms when they learned of it," Ben explained gently to his True Love.

"But, that's all we've had all our lives," Carlos insisted, upset to hear that things on the island were not as they were supposed to be.

"We know, Carlos. Which means the corruption that's been hiding it all these years is systemic and very well hidden. We were hoping Regina might see something we're missing as a set of fresh eyes. Things like that cannot and _will_ not continue," the Fairy Godmother insisted.

"And the perpetrators will be found and punished," Adam added with a growl. The thought of someone sneaking something like this past him for the whole of his reign over Auradon raised his ire significantly. They may have been villains and prisoners, but the people of the Isle were still his subjects as well. How dare anyone steal food from them and feed them garbage instead?

Mal seemed to shrink in on herself for a moment before visible steeling herself and shaking off her sense of unease at speaking of her less than stellar childhood on the Isle as she asked, "Okay, so we make sure this new not quite as evil queen is on the level, and then you guys set her loose to sniff out who's been messing things up worse for the people on the Isle?"

"We'll do it," Evie commented with conviction before any of the adults could even answer Mal.

"E," Mal started to say only to be cut off.

"No, M. We need to do this. We need to know who's been hurting everyone back home. There are people there that deserve to know the truth. And if that means checking out a different version of my mother and making sure she's not as bad, that's a price I'm willing to pay. We owe them that much," Evie insisted.

Mal smiled sadly before she nodded in agreement and said, "It's your call, Princess. She is your mother, I guess."

As the others chimed in with their agreement a look was shared between the two girls. They understood just what that might mean to Evie of all people. Even if she was not the one the birthed her, Evie was dying to know a nicer version of her mother. As irrational as it sounded, part of her hoped that she would connect with this new Evil Queen, this Regina Mills, to try to fill the glaring gap her own mother had left in her life.

* * *

 ** _Storyrbrooke: Present Day_**

"What do you mean Regina is gone?" Snow insisted. "Where did she go? Heck, where _could_ she go?"

"I don't know. But her letter makes it seem like she's pretty sure we can't track her down," Emma explained to her mother as she handed over the letter in question.

Her father, David, read over the missive from where he sat next to his wife before he asked, "She's handing custody of Henry over to you?"

Emma nodded grimly as she replied, "The papers were all included with the letter. She left a letter for the kid too, but damned if I know how to even start to tell him his mother is gone."

"Emma, _you're_ his mother," Snow insisted, almost out of habit.

"Yeah, and the woman that raised him and made him who he is for the last eleven years when I couldn't be there for him is gone now. You really think that's going make this any easier for him? Especially when we all but ran her out of town?" Emma spat frustratedly. This whole issue was hitting rather close to home for her with her memories of life in the foster care system.

"I think it was more than that. I told you what she had to face with Daniel after Whale..." David added with a wince.

"Just call him Frankenstein at this point. He earned it with that stunt. Especially after all the crap he gave Regina over her past when the curse was lifted," Emma growled.

For her part Snow looked ready to cry at the memory of David telling them of how Regina had to kill her reanimated first love at Daniel's insistence after he had attacked Henry and threatened Regina herself. After Cora had killed him the first time she could not begin to imagine what that did to her onetime stepmother. It also brought up another possibility that filled Snow with dread as she asked, "You don't think Regina... _did_ something to herself and this was just a way to hide it, do you?"

"No way. I can barely imagine her leaving because in her messed up head she thought it might make Henry happy. She would not kill herself. That's not who she is. Regina has always been a fighter," Emma insisted.

"She was going to let the mob take her after the curse broke Emma. And she was going to sacrifice herself to the wraith after that when Gold released magic back into the town," Snow pointed out worriedly.

Charming looked disturbed for a moment before shaking his head as he said, "Emma's right. And even if she did reach that point, if she was going to take that step she wouldn't hide from us. She'd ask to hide it from Henry but she'd tell us if only to spite you, Snow. She wouldn't bother with faking her disappearance."

"Which still leaves us back to square one on terms of trying to find her. Especially when she didn't even have the decency to take her car wherever she went," Emma pointed out.

Her parents shared a look before David asked, "Are you sure that's the best course of action, Emma?"

Emma stared at the pair in shock for a moment before she insisted, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It's just that, well, we had been talking about the possibility of... leaving Regina here if and when we can all return to the Enchanted Forest," Snow added with a guilty wince.

Emma sat there in silence for several moments before she exploded, "Are you _kidding_ me? Did Regina know about this? Because I'm pretty damned sure that would help push her along with her decision if she did."

"No. Of course not. We were very careful not to let Regina know that we were trying to decide between banishment and imprisonment for her," David insisted.

Emma threw up her hands in frustration at that. She had no doubt Regina had been aware of both options. The woman had run the whole damned town for nearly thirty years. Did M&M and David... no, did her _parents_ really think they would just slip something like this by her? "You can't seriously believe that. No wonder she rabbited," Emma moaned mostly to herself.

Both her parents looked more than a little chastised before Snow cleared her throat and replied, "Yes, well. The point still stands. Do we want to find Regina before we all return to the Enchanted Forest?"

"What do you mean _we_?" Emma asked with a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

"All of us. The whole town, of course," Snow replied somewhat obliviously.

"And have you even asked the town whether they want to go back?" Emma asked.

"Why would we? We're the rightful King and Queen. Besides, it's their home," Snow replied, confused.

At that point Emma found herself wishing Regina might have had the mercy to take her and Henry with her to save them both from her moderately insane parents. "And where do I figure in this little plan?" she asked, more than a little afraid of their answer.

Her parents shared a look of confusion before Snow replied, "Why you'll come with us, of course. It's your home too, after all. It's where you were born. You can fulfill your role as Princess and you and Neal can raise Henry there together."

Emma wanted to ask them if they were serious. They were talking about a place she had spent all of two minutes in as a newborn before being sent to _this_ world. Storybrooke was pushing it for her in terms of magic and fairy tale weirdness. There was no way she wanted to go live in some dark age castle and be a Princess. That wasn't who she was. But she also knew that they weren't planning on leaving tomorrow and she had bigger fish to fry at the moment. Despite her better judgment she shook off her misgivings at what she was hearing and said instead, "You can't tell me you're not worried about where Regina is. At the very least we need to _look_ for her. I mean, we don't know if she just left town and went out into the rest of the world, or if she went back to the Enchanted Forest, or... or I don't know where. Do you really think we should play 'out of sight, out of mind' with her?"

Snow looked more concerned with Emma's words than David as she asked, "Can she even leave the town without losing her memories?"

Emma sighed a bit as she admitted, "I have no idea. I suppose I can ask Gold later. Maybe I can get him to use tracking spell like he did to help me find Neal."

"It probably is a good idea to at least locate her, if nothing else," David agreed solemnly.

"And it still doesn't help me figure out what to tell Henry. He can talk about hating her for being the Evil Queen and about me being his real mom all he likes, but she still raised him. You don't just _forget_ something like that," Emma lamented.

"No," Snow agreed with a hollow feeling deep inside. "You don't."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** And that's the end of that chapter. Reviews, suggestions, and constructive criticisms are always appreciated.

I also have a question of sorts to pose to you all. What do you think of adding the twist of making Rumple Regina's biological father? I thought of adding it as a way to explain why he would come to help Emma to track her down. Perhaps Cora chastising him and accusing him of hiding Regina from her because he discovered the truth. Of course Rumple would have no clue Regina was actually his until after Cora opened her fat mouth and would suddenly feel awful for things like the wraith and the fire in city hall. It would also make Neal/Baelfire a more significant part of the plot overall as he learns he actually has a little sister out there.

So what do you all think? Yea or nay?


	4. Chapter 4

_**Auradon: Present Day**_

To say that the first meeting between the Villain Kids and Regina was awkward was putting it mildly. After a brief introduction, Fairy Godmother retreated from the room to give them privacy, leaving them in a tense silence. After all, what did one say the other dimensional counterpart to the mother of one of your group? And likewise, what did Regina say to the child she could have had for herself had she not been determined to deny Leopold at least that much from her as he robbed her of her freedom and innocence to make her his new queen?

It was finally Carlos of all people that broke the silent study going on by everyone in the room as he remarked, "Wow, our Evil Queen will be ticked."

Everyone in the room, Regina included, looked at Carlos like he had lost his mind as Mal asked, "Why?"

"Well, she's looks like like our version except she's younger, prettier, thinner, and doesn't cake on so much make-up you can barely tell she's human. And the scar on her lip means Grimhilde could never pretend that's really her from the past or something. She would _never_ own up to having any kind of scar," Carlos pointed out with a shrug.

Regina took the somewhat backhanded compliment with a wry smile as she noted, "Thank you dear. I'll rest easy knowing that... woman will not be confused easily with me." Beyond his features it was hard for her to reconcile the young man before her with her memories of her own Cruella. He was far too nice and did not seem nearly as over-the-top.

"So, I take it you know about all of us, then?" Mal asked, taking charge as Evie still seemed too engrossed in looking at Regina to do so.

"I do, indeed. I was using the same magic hat the Hatter used to transport me here to watch things for the last week before I decided to come here. I didn't want to discover too late that your King Adam was really Rumple in disguise or something and be too late to do anything about it. Oh, and congratulations on taking down your mother, Mal. I really wish I could have shown my Maleficent that one. She would have thoroughly enjoyed it," Regina replied.

"She would?" Mal asked, somewhat surprised by that revelation.

"Oh yes. I couldn't see her being any more fond of your mother than I am with my... counterpart," Regina admitted.

"So why didn't you show her?" Jay asked from where he stood with his back against the far wall of the room to keep Regina in his sight at all times.

Regina winced a but before glancing apologetically at Mal as she replied, "She's... no longer with us."

Mal looked shell-shocked as she demanded, "My mom's _dead_ in your world."

Regina nodded her head in affirmation before she explained, "I take it you've been mostly filled in on what I was told in my first two interrogations after coming here?" When all four kids nodded in the affirmative she continued, "Then you know of how Rumplestiltskin likes to play his games. He maneuvered Miss Swan into facing and slaying Mal, that is to say my Maleficent, where she was kept in under the local library her dragon form because of the Dark Curse."

"You called her Mal?" Mal asked, bothered that this version of the Evil Queen was close enough to Maleficent to actually have nickname for her. Especially _her_ name. With what they had speculated about Regina living a life more like Evie's growing up, it drew some... uncomfortable comparisons. Was her whole world just a ball of bad things that happened a generation earlier?

Evie spoke up for the first time in the conversation as she asked, "Why?"

Regina looked startled as she looked at the blue-haired girl and asked, "What, dear?"

"Why did he send the girl after Mal's mom? Or, your Maleficent, anyway," Evie elaborated.

Regina looked more than a little ashamed of herself as she recalled, "We were living in the Land Without Magic as part of the curse. And until it was broken no new magic would work. But magical artifacts that came with us as part of the curse could be sacrificed to work spells. And I had used one to try to put Miss Swan under a sleeping curse with a cursed apple turnover. But it backfired and my son, Henry, ate it instead to prove to her that magic was real and I really was the Evil Queen. A potion hidden in Maleficent's belly was supposedly the only way to get enough magic together for his birth mother to use True Love's Kiss to wake him up."

"Why would you do something like that?" Carlos asked, shocked over the former Queen's admission.

But it was Evie that answered rather than Regina as she pieced the motivations of the older woman together. "Because she was trying to take him away from her. She was going to break the Dark Curse and take everything that mattered away from her," she declared with certainty.

"And it was a lie, regardless. Rumple had dozens of artifacts he could have used. And I would have sacrificed anything to save Henry without a second thought. But the potion, which was a distilled drop of the True Love magic between Snow White and her prince, was what he needed to summon all magic back to Storybrooke after the curse was lifted. Then he could summon a wraith to kill me once he had his powers back," Regina elaborated with a scowl. If not for the wraith, Snow and her daughter would not have been returned to the Enchanted Forest and the threat of Cora would not be waiting in the proverbial wings.

"He summoned a _wraith_?" Mal asked in horror. As bad as Regina's actions had been Mal understood them. Heck they were more loving than anything Grimhilde had done for Evie, even if they were selfish and short-sighted. But summoning a wraith was going a bit far.

"He was a bit upset with me," Regina confided with a dark smile.

"Got even with him for manipulating you most of your life, I take it?" Mal asked.

"I took his true love, Belle, prisoner before enacting the curse and told him she was dead. She lived all 28 years of that curse in the hospital as a mental patient with amnesia while he thought she was lost to him. Granted, to her it was just living the same day over again repeatedly until Miss Swan came and started to weaken the curse as time started moving forward, but the imp felt every second of it," Regina noted with a sense of dark satisfaction.

"Wow, harsh," Jay noted, impressed in spite of himself.

"You didn't kill her?" Evie asked, surprised at Regina's actions.

Regina looked somewhat regretful as she admitted, "I never had anything against Miss French herself. She was mostly an unfortunate bystander in my quarrels with the Dark One. Truthfully, she was probably the only innocent one out of all of us in the whole mess. Snow betrayed me and got my first love killed by my mother. Her father... well you kids are too young to even hear my thoughts about him. Her charming husband tried to kill me several times, and Rumple was there pulling the strings until I became exactly the monster he wanted me to be so I could cast his curse. The fact the monster came back to bite him should have been expected."

"But you still held back from killing her?" Mal pressed.

"Just because I was the Evil Queen didn't mean I lost all my sense of right and wrong. I would destroy those harboring Snow White in my pursuit of her but Belle was truly an innocent. Keeping her from Rumple didn't mean I wanted her to suffer. It just happened to be the only way I could hurt him with his full powers as the Dark One," Regina explained. After all, as Cora told her many times, love was weakness.

That bit of information left the kids with quite a bit to think about as they ended the conversation for the day.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke: Present Day**_

"You're lying! She wouldn't just leave," Henry shouted at Snow White as she told him of the fact Regina had apparently left town.

"Henry, honey, I'm so sorry," Snow replied with a helpless look toward Emma, who had moved to hold her child and comfort him. Snow honestly did not think that Henry would take this so hard. Although deep in her heart she felt a similar, if dulled, form of anguish at the thought of former queen's departure. It was hard to let go of someone that you thought of as your mother even with all the bad blood between them.

"I know kid. Trust me, I know," Emma soothed as she rubbed the child's back. She knew the pain of losing a family after thinking it would be forever all too well. The first foster family that had given her back after having a child of their own immediately came to mind.

"But it's not supposed to be like this. Why would my mom leave? That's giving up. She _never_ gives up," Henry insisted, too upset to even put on the facade that Regina was not his mother in his heart of hearts.

"I wish I knew what to tell you. She left you a letter if you feel like you want to read it," Emma offered with a sympathetic wince.

Henry looked tempted to accept before his face closed down and he refused. "No. If she doesn't want me anymore then I don't want to hear her lies about it. I should have known she never really loved me. She really is just the Evil Queen," he spat before standing up and storming out of the loft apartment Snow and Emma shared, slamming the door behind him as his tears fell freely.

"Dammit," Emma swore as she moved to follow after her only son.

"Don't. He'll need time to cool off. I'll keep and eye on him from a distance and be there to bring him home when hes ready," David insisted before moving to follow through with his suggestion.

Once Prince Charming was out of the room Snow turned to Emma and noted, "That went about as bad as could be expected."

Emma sighed in agreement as she replied, "Understatement of the year there, mom."

Snow smiled sadly, somewhat encouraged that Emma felt comfortable enough to call her "mom" unconsciously like that. Half the time Emma still referred to her by her cursed identity of Mary Margaret. "He is right about one thing though. It's hard to picture Regina of all people just giving up like that."

"She got it in her head that it was what Henry wanted. If the kid asked her to cut off her own feet she would have done it without a second thought. Hell she absorbed that death curse to let us through the well because Henry asked her to. She'd do anything for him. Even let him go," Emma pointed out. In truth a dark part of her envied how much Regina loved Henry. He got to have the childhood Emma herself never did in the system. It still bothered her how much the kid complained about how his life had sucked when he first brought her to Storybrooke when it was obvious Regina did all she knew to be a good mother to him. Something that seemed even more remarkable after Emma met Regina's mother, Cora, in the Enchanted Forest.

"I can't imagine someone just giving up hope like that. Not even Regina," Snow lamented.

"Without Henry, what did she have to hope for? The whole town hates her guts. They took her job and gave it to you and David. Heck when the curse broke there was literally a lynch mob at her door coming to get her. She didn't exactly have a lot to hang around for," Emma pointed out cynically.

"I know," Snow replied sadly. Part of her, despite all the chances to make amends that Regina refused over the years, thought that they would reconcile someday. That Regina could put the darkness behind her and be the heroic young girl that had saved Snow's life from that runaway horse when the Princess has been all of ten years old. "What did Gold have to say?" she asked after a pause to collect her thoughts.

"Other than an snarky version of 'good riddance?' Not much. He admitted that Regina should keep her memories since she was the one to cast the curse, if she decided to leave town. And he refused to even try to do a locator spell to find her if she did," Emma admitted.

"And did you have any luck doing searches for her her without him?" Snow pressed.

"Not a thing. Which kind of makes sense, when you think about it," Emma admitted.

"What do you mean?" Snow asked.

"The paperwork she filed tells the story, really. She left everything but her car to Henry. And she only gave that to me because he can't use it and she thinks he'll be safer if I drove him around in her Mercedes," Emma pointed out.

"Okay?" Snow replied, unsure of Emma's point. She was not a former bail-bondsperson like her daughter, after all.

"Not jut her assets here in town, Snow. Everything. She had properties and cash built up outside of Storybrooke over the years. Near as I've been able to find after a couple of days of research she left it all to him. Unless there are hidden accounts I haven't found yet it's all in a trust for Henry. If she went out into the regular world she did it with nothing more than the clothes on her back, and the ones apparently missing from her house. She had stuff set up to help her leave for years and didn't tap any of it. She just left it behind for the kid," Emma explained. "And either way I can't begin to figure out how she left if she did. I can't see her legging it on foot."

"Do you think she's hiding somewhere in the town line? Maybe using her magic to hide?" Snow suggested.

Emma shook her head as she replied, "My gut says no. I can always tell when I'm being lied to and everything in that note was legit. I'm sure of it. But damned if I can figure out how Regina pulled this off. All I can say for sure is that Gold looked as surprised as I was before dismissing the whole thing as not being his problem," Emma replied.

"Do you think she's back in the Enchanted Forest?" Snow asked.

"Maybe. But I don't think she'd be any better received there than she was in town," Emma pointed out.

"And she'd have to deal with Cora there. Trust me, Regina would only go near her mother if she felt there was no other option," Snow admitted.

"What's the deal between them, anyway?" Emma asked.

"Let's just say I'm amazed Regina ended up as good as she did with someone like Cora raising her. Were it not for her father, well things could have been a lot worse," Snow said with wince.

"How bad are we talking?" Emma asked.

"Let's put it this way. Once, years after Regina banished her to Wonderland, Cora managed to kidnap Prince Henry and have him brought to Wonderland to set a trap. From what I understand it was going there to confront her mother and rescue her father that introduced Regina to the Mad Hatter. After she got back she declared it a crime for anyone to even talk of entering through the looking glass. Cora is terrifying and amoral. She's what Regina could be if Regina lost all capacity to love," Snow explained.

"Is it wrong of me to admit I hope she never makes it back here?" Emma admitted.

"I can't say I disagree with the sentiment," Snow admitted.

"If she does get here, how do you think she'll react to Regina no longer being here?" Emma asked.

"Not well, honey. Not well." Snow replied.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"Well?" Mal asked as she and the other gathered in her's and Evie's shared dorm room later that day.

"What she did makes more sense than half the stuff we've seen since we came here?" Jay commented with a shrug.

"None of our parents would have been half as nice after someone did to them what she's seen. She was locking people up and using sleeping curses. Can you really picture out parents being that calm?" Carlos asked.

"My mom and Evie's both did. But that was more about going for the pain instead of the kill," Mal pointed out.

"She's selfish. But... I don't know how bad she really is. Right now she just seems... broken," Evie pointed out.

"Did you see how mad she got over your mom giving your the 'wrinkles' speech when she figured out why you stopped smiling, Evie?" Carlos asked.

"Yeah. It was kind of nice to have her tell you that you were worth more than being a trophy wife," Mal pointed out with an encouraging smile.

"Yeah, it was. It was kind of like Mommy, but... not," Evie said with a small smile. It was indeed refreshing for someone besides her friends and Doug to see her mind instead of just another pretty face. Seeing it from what was in a way her mother was almost mind-blowing.

"So what do we do now? I mean we learned some nasty things but not really anything more than Ben and his parents already knew," Jay pointed out.

"I suppose we see her again. We still need to get to know her to know if she's really safe," Mal replied.

"And if she is, she can try to find what's being messed up with the Isle," Carlos chimed in.

"Yeah, she would probably be better at that job than most of the people here. I mean, how many people in Auradon would even expect someone to steal something. Well someone other than, us, anyway. They never even figured out how much Jay was swiping when we first got here and it should have been really obvious with how many things he took within the first day," Mal pointed out.

"She seems really smart. I think she'll be able to help figure things out if we let her," Carlos agreed.

"So we keep visiting her for a few days and if everything seems safe we go from there," Evie noted.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"What do you mean you can't find her? Where is she? Where is my daughter?" Cora demanded as she stalked up to Captain Hook and glowered at him.

"I'm doing my best, Your Majesty. Nobody's seen her. In fact there's mutterings all over town to that effect," Killian Jones, aka Captain Hook, reported.

"I did not come to this forsaken excuse for a realm for nothing Hook. If you want my help in dealing with the Dark One you will find my daughter. Do you understand me?" Cora demanded dangerously.

"It's not like I was out having a nip of rum and wenching, you know. I do have something of interest to tell you, though," Killian replied.

"And what is that?" Cora inquired.

"The pretty blond bird, Sow White's daughter, was looking for her too. Apparently she thinks she might have left town. I overheard her asking the Crocodile for a spell to find her. He turned her down cold. Didn't seem at all interested in locating out missing Evil Queen," Hook replied.

"Really? How very unlike Rumple to be unconcerned over the disappearance of his protege," Cora mused aloud. She had always hated that her daughter had learned her dark magic from Rumplestiltskin. She was always afraid Regina would learn more about their connection then she should. That she would discover that Rumple had been the only man Cora Mills had ever loved. That she had willingly removed her own heart to make her strong enough to betray him for Regina's sake. That he was... no. She would not dwell on the past like that. Instead she would put all her energy into finding her daughter.

Although it was clear she would have to make an effort to separate the local heroes form the search for Regina. The last thing she needed was the Saviour getting involved and keeping her from convincing Regina to take her place at Cora's side. Everything she had ever done was to help Regina accumulate more power. To make her daughter into the Queen that Eva had mocked Cora for never being. Regina was the living embodiment of her triumph. Her revenge given flesh. She simply had to have the girl on her side. No trifling thing like thirty years in Wonderland would be enough to keep her from her goal. Regina would see reason.

But how? Perhaps she could turn the local against her so that if she returned she would find no solace among them? She supposed she could take someone and make it look like Regina had killed them in cold blood. But who? Who in town would even empathize enough to get close to her daughter? Had Regina still been in this wretched little hamlet Cora could have Hook follow her to find a target but as it stood she was flying blind. It would take some careful consideration to plan out her next move. But plan it she must before the pirate in her employ grew too restless and revealed them by attacking Rumple directly. She wasn't quite ready for _that_ confrontation yet.

Unless, of course, he really did have something to do with Regina's disappearance. And if he did, heaven help him because Cora would wring his scrawny little neck until he told her where her daughter was hiding. Nobody trifled with the Queen of Hearts and kept her from what was hers without regretting it very deeply.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** After overwhelming positive responses I will be going with my earlier suggestion. Things are now just starting to diverge more from OUAT canon. Obviously, Cora will have no idea that Regina has been getting counseling from Archie as she's not here to do it in this timeline, so framing Regina for his "murder" either won't happen or will happen in different way. The idea popped into her head, so to speak, but she has no clear target at this point. She doesn't even know about Henry here (and if she did there's no way she'd be foolish enough to touch him as she is trying to actually get Regina on her side. Attacking Regina's adopted son would make that goal more difficult.)

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Auradon**_

It ended up taking about a week of visits before the Villain Kids started getting comfortable enough with Regina that they would sign off on saying she seemed mostly on the level. Well, they felt comfortable with her after three or so days, really, but they also liked spending time with her and getting to know her as they vetted her, too. It was nice to have an adult around that wasn't one of the pristine royals of Auradon for a change. Someone that understood some things were more gray rather than black or white.

Regina likewise was coming to enjoy spending time with the Descendants. Although her heart hurt a little each time she looked at Evie in the face and thought of what might have been. She knew she was only fooling herself, but she would swear she could see a little of Daniel in the girl's features when she looked hard enough. And Mal reminded her of less tense times with Maleficent, when they were more raucous and mischievous together than centered solely on revenge. Although for the life of her she could not get the feeling that something looked familiar in the girl's features beyond her resemblance to her mother.

Even Carlos and Jay were warming up to her as she was far more interested in them and the goings on in their lives than their actual parents ever were. And while Regina would not claim to understand Carlos' technical pondering and inventions, nor Jay's enthusiasm of the local school sport of Tourney, she still lent them each a listening ear to discuss whatever they wanted to speak about.

All four of the kids had even gone so far as to bring their homework with them while the spent time with the former Evil Queen to give them more time to know her. In fact Jay was bent over a particularly frustrating Economics problem during their most recent "interrogation session."

"What's troubling you, Jay?" Regina asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing much, Miss Mills. Just something for econ. Book stuff isn't my favorite thing. That's more what Evie and Carlos are into," Jay explained.

"I've already told you kids that you can call me Regina, Jay," the former queen playfully admonished.

"Can we call you Auntie 'Gina instead?" Carlos piped up cheekily, which earned a snicker from Mal as she noted the look of thinly veiled disgust from Regina at the moniker.

"I don't think we're _quite_ that close yet, Carlos," Regina commented evenly.

"But we're basically family, aren't we?" Evie teased.

Regina looked surprised for a moment fore her face became a mask of pain that was quickly hidden as she hoarsely replied, "I suppose we are, at that."

Evie and Mal shared a look at Regina's reaction even as Evie winced over her faux pas. Reminding the one time Evil Queen of her former adopted son, Henry, always caused her pain even if she refused to show it. Only those that lived with constant emotional hurts, like those from the Isle, could recognize it so easily, but it was there. And honestly, Mal was all but ready to take that brat Henry by the collar and remind him of the manners Regina tried to teach him if she ever got the chance to meet him. He sounded to her just like the average arrogant and judgmental jerk you would find in Auradon when the VK's first arrived there. She was sure he would get on famously with Chad Charming.

"Anyway, I'm having some problems with the math part of this one," Jay interjected to break the tension in the room.

"Well let me have a look and see if I can help walk you through it, dear," Regina commented, welcoming the distraction for what it was.

"You know a lot about economics? Because I'm pretty sure things in Auradon run differently from your world. Either of them, really," Mal asked skeptically. "Heck they run strangely here even compared to the Isle."

"That may be, Mal, but the core concepts and math behind them should be the same. And you don't run a town for 28 years, or a kingdom before it, successfully without knowing something about economics," Regina noted with a smirk.

"But weren't you able to run the town because of the curse?" Carlos asked in confusion.

"Not exactly. I was the only one given no memories by the Dark Curse. Even Rumple and Jefferson got a kind of info dump to help them adapt that I lacked because I was the one to cast it. I had to learn everything about the Land Without Magic all on my own and figure out how to run a modern American town on the fly," Regina explained with a note of pride on her voice.

"Wow, that must have been really hard, Mo- er, Regina," Evie noted, even as she admonished herself for almost calling Regina "Mommy" unconsciously. It was hard sometimes for her to remind herself that the woman there technically was someone completely different, even if blood tests would say they were closely related. And Regina always got a misty-eye and wistful look whenever Evie slipped up.

"It was at first, but I adapted. Actually, thanks to the advance of the internet and several correspondence schools before it, I ended up pursuing several collegiate degrees to help me cope better with my role as mayor of Storybrooke," Regina admitted.

"Really? Like what?" Evie asked, enthralled to learn more about Regina's educational background.

"Well, I currently hold a MBA in accounting, and a Master's Degree in Business Administration. I also have a doctorate in Political Science. And Bachelor's Degrees in Agriculture, Civil Engineering, and Culinary Arts, although that last one was a struggle as I had to attend classes outside of town for several of the courses. But because of it I can honestly say I'm one of the better cooks in all of Storybooke or the Enchanted Forest, even if the Widow Lucas would disagree with me," Regina noted proudly.

The Villain Kids looked confused for a moment before Carlos asked, "Who's the Widow Lucas?"

"Granny from the tale of Little Red Riding Hood. She and her granddaughter ran the local coffee shop in town," Regina explained as she looked over the problem for Jay to try to figure out where he was getting tripped up.

"So the Big Bad Wolf didn't get her in your world?" Mal asked.

Regina smirked as she replied, "That would be bordering on cannibalism, dear."

"Huh?" Mal asked.

"The Widow Lucas isn't just some random old woman. She's a werewolf, even if she's too old to shift any more herself. And the so-called Big Bad Wolf was actually her granddaughter Ruby, aka Red Riding Hood, herself," Regina explained.

"Ah, so no eating her own grandmother then," Mal noted with a look of shock. One of these days they would really have to stop asking Regina about what was different in her world. The answers always threw them for a loop.

"No, just her first boyfriend," Regina dismissed.

"Huh?" Carlos asked in alarm.

Regina sighed a bit as she elaborated, "Widow Lucas isolated Red for all of her childhood after her mother abandoned them to join and eventually lead a rogue pack of werewolves. She also took it upon herself to conceal Red's nature from everyone, including Red herself. In fact her signature cloak was enchanted to keep her from shifting. Unfortunately, when Red was a rebellious young woman about your ages she met and fell in love with a local boy named Peter. They intended to run away together and elope, only for the Widow Lucas' shortsightedness to comeback and bite them, quite literally. Red was not aware she was a werewolf and had no way to control herself and retain her mind during her shifts. And she chose a night of the full moon to run away and elope with her new love. In the end you had a dead young man and Ruby searching for the wolf that killed him, unaware that it was, in fact, herself all along."

"Not exactly the happy tale we have here, is it?" Mal noted sardonically.

"It gets better for her. She ended up befriending Snow White while she was fleeing from me and they learned the truth together. They traveled together quite often in the early years of Snow's exile, in fact. And she eventually learned how to control herself during Wolf's Time and became one of Snow's staunchest allies and a regular pain in my side," Regina noted.

"You don't sound that upset with her," Evie pointed out.

"I suppose I felt a little sorry for her. And she was always pleasant to me as a simple waitress during the curse. Besides, I always had an affinity for wolves. One of the first things I did after taking control of my kingdom from my former husband was to make it illegal to hunt them," Regina replied with a fond smile.

"Cool," Carlos exclaimed enthusiastically. After bonding with the campus mutt Dude the way he had, the boy found himself appreciating and wanting to watch out for most things canine. It was almost as if he was purposefully rebelling from Cruella's conditioning to think all dogs were violent monsters that were out to get him.

"Yes, well, bear in mind that many regular wolves in the Enchanted Forest, or at least my part of it, were fully sentient and capable of human speech. It seemed wrong to treat them as simple beasts when they were better conversationalists than most of my Royal Court," Regina explained.

"It still was a good thing to do for them," Evie pointed out with a smile.

"I suppose," Regina replied, unused to getting praise and acceptance for any of her acts as the Evil Queen. Instead of dealing with the uncomfortable feelings, she turned back to Jay and said, "I think I see what you're having an issue with here. Now, just try to picture it as-" she began to explain.

Mal and Evie just shared another look as they watched Regina shy away from any but the most superficial of praise. She may not have been born on their world, but she sure acted like someone from the Isle a lot of the time.

* * *

 _ **Auradon: Two weeks later.**_

It had taken another week for the kids from the Isle of the Lost to finally concede to Fairy Godmother and the others that Regina was safe enough to be allowed to look into the issues facing their former home. What none of them expected was that it would take just over a week of investigating for Regina to track the problems and put together a preliminary report for Ben and his parents.

"Peter Pan," Regina said without any form of introduction as she strode into the King's office and placed the report on Ben's desk.

"What?" Ben asked, somewhat bewildered as she started to thumb through her findings.

"Peter Pan and his Lost Boys are the primary problem with many of the shipments to the Isle. Although not the only one by any means. There are several other smaller rings of thieves and scammers skimming from the supply runs each month and keeping choice pieces either for themselves or going so far as to destroy them rather than let villains have anything approaching a luxury. If you'll note the itemized lists of what is and isn't reaching the Isle according to the kids, you'll notice a pattern. Most sweets, especially chocolate, never make it there. Not even the children of the island's leaders, like Mal and Evie, knew what they were before coming to Auradon. But you do occasionally get fresh vegetables there and things like coffee make it without an issue. The only fruit prevalent on the isle are those that could be grown in the limited soil of the outer forest region, like apples. And even those are still somewhat scarce as Grimhilde has been growing their orchards from the seeds of the first rotten apples shipped to the Isle years ago.

Conversely, tea rarely makes it to the isle. Mostly because Pan knows Hook, who styles himself as a gentleman here, would prefer proper tea, but he comes from an area with little to no interest in coffee. As I said, you will rarely see sweets make it, but basic commodities that a child would not consider, like sugar and flour, do make it in limited quantities, although you have several different people taking from those shipments and reselling them on the black market here for a tidy profit.

Still, Pan is your biggest offender, which is unsurprising. Even here he's a borderline sociopath more concerned with his rivalry with Hook than anything else. He would never think twice about how his actions hurt other villains or even their children as he can't even think of them as people. But when you consider he's someone that regularly stole children away from their families to 'save' then from aging and dealing with responsibilities I suppose it's not exactly a shock. All in all, he's far nicer than the monster we feared in the Enchanted Forest. Even if he's just at much of a child thief," Regina reported.

Belle looked over the reports with deep concern as she asked, "Are you certain of this, Lady Mills?"

Regina did her best not to snap at the Queen Mother of Auradon as she formed her response. The woman looked and sounded _exactly_ like Blue rather than like Miss French. It was off-putting in the extreme to her and was something she intended to look into in her free time later. Still her mannerisms were all the light and forgiveness of Belle and so Regina moderated herself as she nodded, "Positive."

"Well what can we do about this?" Ben asked as he looked over the reports with a angry and flushed expression mirrored by his father as Adam read them over his shoulder.

"I would arrest and publicly try the smaller bands of thieves skimming from the supply runs. Make sure the media campaign surrounding it pushes that they were literally taking food from the mouths of innocent and mostly impoverished children as well as hapless sidekicks like Mr. Smee instead of just taking from the worst villains. Then have them placed in a more conventional prison. Maybe force them to do community service work like mending clothes or picking fresh food to be sent to the Isle to replace what was stolen. You obviously can't risk sending them to the Isle themselves unless you want to have them meet a messy end. Angry starving people that have been purposely wronged just to make a profit would not exactly treat them with mercy," Regina suggested evenly.

"And what about Pan?" Adam asked with a furrowed brow.

"Have Fairy Godmother speak to Tinker Bell about reining him in. If that doesn't work, have them design something that will bind his ability to use magic, pixie dust in particular. Taking away his ability to fly and his agelessness from the constant exposure to the dust would do more to curb him than any prison. And make it clear that if he's ever caught doing something like this again he'll spend a year bound like that for each infraction. A year of actual aging at a time would be more horrific to him than even sending him to the Isle, where he would also age. At the end of the day he is very much a child in mentality despite being several centuries old. You'll need to ground him like one to make the lesson stick," Regina proposed.

"That's a very well thought out solution, Lady Mills. Did you have to deal with the Peter Pan of your world?" Belle noted.

"Just Regina is fine, your majesty. And no, I never had the displeasure of dealing with the child thief directly. Although I did have a couple of families in my kingdom come to me for help after he stole their sons. But unless you catch him directly in the act it was hard to get near someone like Pan. Most people in the Enchanted Forest considered him to be a malevolent spirit nearly on par with the Dark One himself. He and his shadow were not quite as... acceptable as they are here," Regina replied with a note of disgust.

"I see. My apologies for bringing it up then, Regina," Belle replied with a wince of her own. She sometimes forgot how much darker Regina's world was when compared to Auradon.

"It's fine. I'm honestly glad I was able to track this down so easily. The thought of people, including children, being forced to eat garbage was very upsetting. And I imagine your issues with general animosity toward Auradon will improve with the improvement of conditions there. Although I imagine they'll privately credit Mal more than you, King Benjamin," Regina said with a smile.

"Just Ben, please, Regina. At least in private like this. And what do you mean?" Ben asked cordially.

Regina smiled coolly as she noted, "After your coronation it's no secret to anyone that you and Mal are involved. And anyone with the magic to see it would go so far as to say you're True Loves. I would imagine you were even dreaming about her before you ever met her," Regina began, her smile widening as Ben's cheeks dusted with a blush.

"Son?" Adam asked even as Belle smiled herself at her child's reaction.

"Before my decree. I was dreaming of a girl with purple hair for weeks. I knew the moment I saw her that it was Mal," Ben admitted.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Ben. Besides you know that we adore Mal now that we've had the chance to get to know her. She's much better for you than Audrey ever was," Belle replied with a comforting hand on his shoulder and a conspiratorial wink at her husband.

"I thought as much. There is no greater magic than True Love. You'll always find your way to one another and anyone trying to keep the two of you apart will be doomed to failure. I can testify to that one personally with Snow White and her little shepherd prince," Regina noted as she tried not to roll her eyes at the scene before her. "But anyway, the point is that it is well knows that Mal has your ear as your intended. The people on the Isle will be more likely to believe she was the one to make you investigate things there and improve conditions for them. With this going on as long as it has they'll be predisposed to think anyone from Auradon proper just flat out doesn't care about them. They'll think she twisted your arm to improve things, so to speak. Even if you tell them that you didn't," Regina explained.

"Is that such a bad thing?" Ben asked.

"Not really. If anything it will improve perceptions about her as they likely see her as somewhat of a traitor for stopping Maleficent. Although I imagine few actually _blame_ the girl for standing up to her mother. But this will show them that she's still on their side, so to speak. And as you two grow closer, they'll come to trust you, even if it's only through Mal as a proxy. They did refer to her as the Princess of the Isle, after all, much to Mal's eternal disdain. I get the feeling many people there saw it as more than just an honorary title used to tease her," Regina elaborated.

After a pause to consider her words, Ben stood up and shook Regina hand as he noted, "Well we might never have found all this without your hard work, Regina. We are indebted to you for your help."

Regina gave a hint of a real smile as she bowed formally and replied, "It was nice to feel useful. And getting to know the kids from the Isle as part of my investigations was a welcome surprise. Thank you for the opportunity, your Highness."

"Speaking of useful, have you considered what you are going to do once things have been settled here?" Belle asked with a shrewd look.

Regina looked somewhat taken aback at the question as she responded, "I haven't had much chance to really think too much on it. I do have some liquid assets in the form of gold and jewels I brought along that I can summon with my magic. That should at least be enough to get things started here."

"That's good. The reason I ask is that I couldn't help but be impressed learning about your extensive pursuit of higher education that you discussed with the kids from the Isle. Evie in particular was particularly impressed with the number of degrees you've accumulated and Jay was quite complimentary with how you helped him with his economics homework," Belle noted with an approving smile.

Regina could not help but let a muted smile of her own grace her lips at the words. She found herself becoming rather fond of all four Villain Kids as time went on. She had initially thought she might only bond with Evie and Mal, and even that only over time, but she quickly learned that all four of them had a knack for worming their way into her blackened and damaged heart. Carlos, for example, reminded her a great deal of the best of times she had with Henry before he had learned he was adopted. The technical genius of the kids from the isle had a child-like innocence that was downright infectious. And Jay seemed to have more charm in his pinky finger than David Nolan would ever summon in his self-righteous shepherd's body.

Belle felt her own smile widen at Regina's expression as she continued, "Anyway, I was wondering if you might be interested in a position that would put your education to good use?"

"What do you have in mind?" Regina asked.

"Well, I don't know if you've noticed as they got to know you, but Fairy Godmother has pointed out that children from the Isle had some definite growing pains, so to speak, in learning to deal with life in Auradon. They all seem to be finding their individual niches, but they also tend to keep to themselves beyond a small group of friends like Ben, Doug, Fairy Godmother's daughter Jane, and Aurora's girl, Audrey. They are especially... remiss to look toward any of the adults in Auradon for any kind of help when they need it. But I couldn't help but notice that they aren't as shy about looking to you for help," Belle explained.

"I suppose. It probably helps them to know I've dome worse than they ever could and chose to make something more of myself when given the chance," Regina pointed out.

"Quite so. But, the point stands that it has mostly been Fairy Godmother acting as their only adviser in the guise of teaching their... er- Remedial Goodness class. But they have more than proved that they don't actually _need_ a class like that and it has been taking away from her overall duties as Headmistress of Auradon Prep," Belle continued.

"So you... want me to take over her Remidal Goodness class? I hate to say this but I think I would be supremely under-qualified for that one," Regina noted dryly.

"Not the class, per se, but more her role as an academic adviser and councilor for the kids from the Isle. I can't help but feel much of what took place leading up to the Coronation could have been avoided if there was someone there that the kids felt they could trust. And with the plans to eventually expand Ben's decree and start bringing more of the kids from the Isle here in the future, well it might help to keep history from repeating itself," Belle explained.

"I could see that. Children do need guidance, after all," Regina conceded diplomatically as she suppressed the urge to run up and hug the Queen Mother of Auradon. She was not blind to the fact that Belle was offering a chance to continue to spend time with the Villain Kids with her direct approval for more than academic reasons.

"Of course, acting as a liaison for children from the Isle would not be the whole of your duties. If you would feel amenable I would like to offer at least some extra-curricular seminars in fields like accounting and business administration for this term and perhaps offering formal classes either in the next semester or in the coming year. Not every child attending Auradon Prep will have a place on the Ruling Council someday, after all," Belle added with a knowing smile.

Regina raised her right eyebrow in contemplation as she replied, "I could see the benefits of courses like that for several of the kids here. Although it might help to open some of those seminars to families without the means of attending the school as well. Perhaps a few workshops over holiday periods?"

Belle was beaming at the suggestion as she said, "We can work out the details with Fairy Godmother later today after the meeting. I could see how that would be very helpful to the general population of the capital city."

"And help introduce me as someone very different than Grimhilde that the people could come to accept more easily," Regina pointed out, seeing some of the further ulterior motives in Belle's suggestion.

"That sounds like a very nice added benefit," Belle blithely responded, as if such a notion never crossed her mind. "Of course, you'll need accommodations on campus for now, but I know the school has several vacant faculty suites. And I will of course make certain yours has a fully equipped kitchen."

"That would be wonderful, your Highness," Regina replied with a warm smile.

As the two women conversed Ben leaned back to his father and humorously asked, "Do you get the feeling we've been forgotten in all this?"

"Let your mother be, son. She's a force to be reckoned with when she puts her mind to something. That's how I ended up redeeming myself and becoming human again, after all," King Adam pointed out sagely.

"At least this will make Mal and the others really happy," Ben commented with a fond smile.

"Just keep that goal in mind and you will have a very happy future someday, Ben. 'Happy wife, happy life' isn't just a catchy saying," Adam noted. From there he could only chuckle at the deep blush Ben developed at his advice. Yes, Mal was a much better match for his son than Audrey had been. Adam had only seen that look before in the mirror when he thought about Belle.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Okay, that's another one taken care of. Chapters might slow down as I'm staring a new job on top of my old one and time will be limited.

As for Lily and OUAT Maleficent being added to the story, that might be a ways off. Keep in mind that this is set in early Season 2 to start and Lily and Mal weren't there until Season 4. For now, if anything, you will see Regina becoming a surrogate parent to all four of the Descendants. You can expect that things will get to a point, after a confrontation or two with Grimhilde, that Evie and Mal will both get to the point of referring to Regina as "Mom." Carlos will feel the same way, but might stick to "Aunt 'Gina" to be funny.

As always any ideas, questions, and suggestions you might have are deeply appreciated. The more feedback I get, the more the wheels turn and the creative juices keep flowing. Here's to whenever I will have time to get the next part written down.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Storybrooke**_

Of the very few virtues one could assign to the Queen of Hearts, patience was certainly not among them. It was almost admirable that she managed to remain hidden for two weeks before her attacks on the town began. She eventually had to scrap her plan to try to turn the heroes against Regina as it was clear the effort would have been fully wasted.

Regina was nowhere to be found within the town she had created with the Dark Curse. Cora was quite certain of that. And so she did what she did best when she was frustrated and denied something she wanted; she lashed out. A magic-fueled rampage through main street here, a summoned ogre or two there, even tossing around that ridiculous Blue Fairy when she came across her playing at being a nun.

But it also was becoming increasingly clear that her efforts were amounting to little more than a huge tantrum. She thought at first that bringing forth enough destruction and chaos would summon her wayward daughter to at least nominally defend her new kingdom. (Although Cora came to realize the Charmings has already usurped it before she had arrived.) But it was clearly not working. In fact after a solid month of various attacks and feints to amuse herself she was no closer to reuniting with her daughter. The closest she had come, in fact, was speaking to the ungrateful little urchin the Savior had let slip was Regina's adopted son back during their first confrontation in the Enchanted Forest.

Quite honestly, Cora was less than impressed with Henry "Mills." Oh she saw some of her daughter's demeanor in the way the boy held himself, to be certain. The way he held his posture. His diligence with his studies even as the Savior and Eva's idiot daughter Snow failed to discipline him properly. Even his sharp tongue were all traits the child shared with her Regina. Truth be told, he had some features that made her believe the boy could be related to her daughter. Then again, if what she had heard about the other half of his pedigree were true, that might make sense.

But his willful disobedience and sickening belief in the goodness of his Charming family could only have come from that blonde slattern that had been his birth mother. Cora could literally see all of Regina's hard work with the child unraveling before her very eyes by the day. Were he not technically of Eva's line she would have been tempted to take her nominal grandson into her care if only to save his manners from the blonde troll he called now claimed as his mother. And honestly, she did not need the headache Regina would give her if her daughter discovered that she had touched the ungrateful little brat. She was trying to return her daughter to her side, after all, not alienate her further.

Of course, none of that would matter if she could not FIND the girl. And it was becoming increasingly clear that her efforts in this disgusting little hamlet were wasted. Weeks ago Cora had begun to have a sneaking suspicion as to the source of Regina's ability to vanish without a trace. Suspicions that were only reinforced when she learned that Henry's birth father "just happened" to be Rumplestiltskin's lost son. The imp had always had a perverse taste for irony and tricking Regina into raising his only grandson would certainly count. Especially if he had learned... well it all made sense, then, didn't it? And it tied all the little strings with his Dark Curse together so neatly as well.

And so with narrowed eyes the Queen of Hearts vanished for the deck of the Jolly Roger in a cloud of smoke only to appear in front of Gold's Pawn Shop. She had more than enough of dealing with the fools in this town. She would have her daughter's location and she would have it today. And so help her she would make Rumple pay for hiding her daughter from her all this time.

* * *

As Cora prepared for her confrontation, the current "town war council" of Storybooke were meeting at Granny's diner to discuss the current situation. Granted the town war council only really consisted of Snow, David, Emma, Granny, Ruby, the Seven Dwarfs, and the Blue Fairy, along with Henry as anyone that could act as a babysitter for him was already at the meeting.

"Listen, Sister, as much as saying it makes me sick we NEED the Evil Queen back. She's the only one with the firepower to deal with the Queen of Hearts. So where the heck is she?" Leroy, otherwise known as Grumpy, demanded of Snow White.

All of the Charming clan winced at that question to varying degrees. They had all come to miss Regina to one degree or another. David and Snow certainly had come to realize how much she did running the town itself and how different it was than ruling a kingdom in the Enchanted Forest. Emma missed arguing with her and definitely did not like how her disappearance was making Henry more sullen and withdrawn. And Henry himself just missed his mom no matter how much he tried to deny it.

"We don't know Grumpy. I wish we did," Snow explained with a sad shake of her head. In all honestly, the longer Regina was gone the worse Snow worried about her. She supposed that she would never be able to sever her stepmother from her life completely. Some part of her would always love the woman and think of her as family. And that part was becoming increasingly more agitated at her absence for two months without so much as a word. "Have you found anything, Emma?" she asked of her daughter.

"Three other hidden accounts, ones so old Regina herself probably forgot about them after she created them a year after casting the Curse. She probably forgot they even existed when she created her trust for Henry. Or they were her backup if she had to flee more than just a bunch of fairytale characters coming for her head past the town line. Either way, there hasn't been any activity on any of them in over twenty-five years. I even went out and canvassed at the neighboring towns to ask of they've seen her since the kid and I are the only ones that can," Emma reported.

"And?" David prompted.

"The last anyone can remember seeing her was a several years ago when she was commuting for some kind of college courses or something from before Henry was born. And only then because she's not exactly the type of woman you forget meeting, especially with the scar on her lip. Which is actually bad news as it means they would have recognized her more easily if she had some through again recently. It doesn't look like she went out past the town line after all," Emma explained.

"She took college classes?" David asked, bewildered.

"Yeah, I found a paper trail of various correspondence and online degrees going back to just before she set up the accounts right up until two years ago," Emma explained with a shrug.

"She used to study with me sometimes while I did my homework. She said it was always a good idea to stay up on things and never stop studying," Henry chimed in with a wistful look on his face before settling in to a scowl at the memory.

"Makes sense I suppose. If she remembered who she was the whole time she didn't get a new personality and memories with the curse the way everyone else did. She would have had to have learned how to live here on her own after it was cast," Granny postulated with a nod of approval.

"Wonder if any of those classes would help with the town budget reports?" David muttered to himself. The sheer volume of paperwork he and Snow were dealing with was mind-boggling. And that was without the added destruction Cora was heaping on the town.

"Either way, it doesn't help us in trying to find her. It's pretty clear Cora will tear the town apart brick by brick until we do," Emma pointed out.

"She probably would anyway. Cora... well let's say Regina and Rumple weren't exactly _wrong_ with wanting to set up a death curse as a barrier to keep her away," Snow pointed out with a shiver. In some way she was almost relieved for Regina's sake that she wasn't in Storybrooke at the moment.

"This is my fault. I made her take down the spell," Henry mumbled.

"Kid, no. The one thing we know for sure right now is that Cora didn't even use the well. Mother Superior confirmed that personally. Cora would have come here anyway. If anything it was my fault for opening my fat mouth in front of her. I should have never told her where Regina was," Emma comforted.

"Which still doesn't tell us where she is right now," Leroy spat. "The one time we actually need her the witch has skipped town on us."

Emma's eyes flashed angrily as she watched Henry shut down even more at the Dwarf's words before he stood up and headed for the kitchen to get away from the conversation. She got up to follow only for Ruby to stop her and say, "Let me. They need you more for the meeting and we've already seen she's nowhere that I can track her in town."

Emma nodded gratefully at Red Riding Hood before she glared at Grumpy and growled, "Like you guys would even care if Cora wasn't causing problems. You were all but ready to throw a party about Regina leaving until Cora showed up. You all seem to forget that this is still the woman that raised my son for the last ten years that went missing. Have a little goddamn tact talking about her in front of him."

"You say that like she did him or this town any favors, sister," Leroy shot back hotly.

At that Emma's ire only increased as she growled, "You seem to forget that I grew up in the system Regina saved him from, Leroy. She did more for him than any of you could imagine. She might have been a bitchy, overly-controlling, OCD tiger mom, but at least she gave a damn about him and actually acted _as_ his mom. Hell the only reason she left is because she thought it was what _he_ really wanted. So don't say she didn't do him any favors. I would have _begged_ to have someone like her in my life at his age."

"I'm no fan of Her Majesty, but even you have to admit she loves that child, Leroy. We all saw it when she brought him here even with the curse making the rest of us relive the same day," Granny cut in.

Grumpy wanted to argue, but even he had to concede that point as she sat back with a cowed expression. He would never trust or like Regina but nobody being honest with themselves would doubt her love for Henry. "Fine, you have a point there. But it still doesn't tell us where she is or help us stop the Queen of Hearts."

"Indeed. Given the circumstances, Her Majesty might be the only one of us that's currently safe. Depending on where she is and how she got there," Blue noted, speaking for the first time. She was still sporting a bandage over a nasty gash on her forehead after being used as a form of stress relief by Cora the previous week.

"So we still have no clues?" David asked to try to direct things a little more.

"Anton's magic beans still aren't ready and haven't been touched. Jefferson's hat was destroyed when we went to the Enchanted Forest, and Gold had no reason to help her one way or another and doesn't have anything missing from his store. It's like she vanished into thin air. You know, more than she does with the whole poofing into purple smoke thing," Emma replied. "Can she do that to get to another world or whatever?"

"No, that kind of power would be impossible, even for Regina," Snow denied even as Blue looked around uncomfortably and coughed politely into her hand. "Blue?" Snow asked in concern at Mother Superior's reaction.

"That's not... entirely accurate, your Highness. The Evil Queen has always had far more power within her than she knew. She was just never taught to harness it properly or to even believe that it existed. Both the Queen of Hearts and the Dark One had vested interests in trying to make her believe she would be too weak to ever stand against them. If she ever discovered her full potential, she would be one of the very few sorceresses that could conceivably breach the walls to different realms unassisted, although the amount of power it would require would have been too much for her to slip away unnoticed," Blue pointed out.

"You mean what we've faced is Regina being held back?" David asked uncomfortably.

"No, you have faced her holding _herself_ back. Not unlike how a trained war elephant is held with heavy chains in its youth so that it will not think to challenge even a simple rope in adulthood," Blue elaborated.

"Makes sense," Emma noted. "Gold and Cora have both manipulated and used her for most of life from what we know. You don't want someone strong enough to fight back coming back at you with a serious grudge after doing that. So how strong would we be talking here for Regina to escape the realm under her own power, Blue?"

"Power akin to a natural disaster. Roughly the equivalent to a tornado," Blue answered succinctly.

"Definitely not something we missed in the middle of the night then. Damn," Emma noted with a frustrated sigh. Any further comment the Sheriff might have made was cut short as she saw a telltale plume of purple smoke across and down the street a ways through the front window of the store. She stood for a moment, hoping against hope that their arguing had been nullified by Regina's return only to grimace as she saw who had appeared and stormed in to Gold's Pawn Shop. "Oh, that can't be good," she muttered.

"What is it, honey?" Snow asked in concern as she got up to join her daughter. At the window.

"Cora just appeared in front of the pawn shop and went stomping in there with a purpose. I think she might be getting a little tired of not being able to find Regina too," Emma replied.

"But aren't Neal and Belle there with him right now?" Snow fretted.

"Yeah, Neal said he was going to try to work a few things out with his dad before going back to New York to arrange things for a longer visit with Henry. Truth be told, I was thinking about asking him to keep Henry with him where it's safe until this mess with Cora was resolved," Emma reported.

"We need to get over there, then," David suggested as he checked his police-issued side-arm on one side and reached for the sword he had taken to carrying on the other.

* * *

As the heroes made their way to mount a possible rescue, Cora had murder in her eyes as she strode in froze Belle and Neal in place with a negligent wave of her hand as she demanded, "Where is she Rumple?"

Rumplestiltskin's grin was strained as he gave Cora a cold warning glare as he noted, "Cora, dearie. What a... pleasure to see you after all this time."

"I'll have none of your nonsense. Not this time. You will tell me where my daughter is now," Cora spat.

"It would not do well for you to try to threaten me in my own home, Cora. Especially not in front of Belle and my son," Rumple warned as he waved his right hand and released them.

"Papa?" Neal asked in concern.

"It's alright, Bae. Cora was just leaving. Judging by her ranting, she seems to be under the mistaken impression I had a hand in helping Her Majesty to take her little sabbatical from our fine town. But like Miss Swan before her, she will find no answers here. I have no idea where Regina has gone. Nor do I care as long as she is out of my hair," Mr. Gold ground out irritably. "In fact, why don't you and Belle head into the back and make yourselves a cup of tea? This won't take long."

"Do you honestly take me for a fool, Rumple? Do you think I don't know of your involvement? That I would miss the signs? How long have you known? Since you turned her against me and started training her in magic? Or after when you arranged for her to care for your grandson? Or should that be our grandson?" Cora sneered back.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're rambling about, dearie. The only reason I ensured Regina adopted Henry was to bring Miss Swan here to break the curse and help me find my son," Rumble shot back.

"Yes, you "helped" her adopt to make up for brewing that disgusting potion for her to leave her barren after forcing the idea into her head that I would kill her and use the child as a puppet ruler. As if I would kill my own daughter," Cora growled.

"I'd say it was a fairly safe bet, Cora. You had a habit of putting power before love as I recall. And that was _before_ you removed your own heart," Rumple sniped back.

Neither one of them paid attention to the sound of the bell above the door opening or Emma, Snow, and Charming storming in as the pair stood nose to nose, practically growling at one another.

"You know damned well why I removed my heart, Rumple. Love is weakness. And you were making me weaker by the day. If I hadn't I never would have been able to bring myself marry that simpering weakling Henry. Especially when I was carrying your daughter in my belly," Cora snapped.

Rumple looked as if he had been physically struck as he stumbled back in shock and whispered a broken, "What?" as Snow gasped as Emma whispered out something that sounded blasphemous with an expletive or two thrown in to the expression.

"Oh spare my your acting, Dark One. You knew. You had to have known. You would not have taken the time to mold her the way you did if you hadn't. Nor would you have helped her hide from me. Now tell me where our daughter is or I swear to you that she will soon be your _only_ child," Cora spat hatefully.

"Wait a minute. Are you saying that your daughter, my son's adopted mother, is Papa's daughter too? She's Henry's aunt by blood?" Neal asked as Rumple looked incapable of forming words as he backed up all the way to where Belle stood as his true love embraced him from behind to try to comfort him.

"Of course, your stupid oaf. And your father knew. Do you honestly think he would risk placing his grandson with anyone but family? What I want to know is when he found out and told Regina? I assume telling her had to be after the curse or my husband sacrificing himself for her to cast it would not have worked. Heaven knows she tried hard enough to get him back from Wonderland the last time I took him," Cora snapped testily.

Rumple finally seemed to get his feet back from under him at that as he stood tall, his ever-present cane grasped tightly in his hand. "You lied. You said she was his," Rumple said in a low whisper.

"Of course I did. Did you really think I would sacrifice everything I had worked for just because I let myself succumb to your charms? A potion here to delay delivery, a spell there to hide bloodline traces. You were far too willing to believe she was Henry's already. Now drop the act and tell me where she is," Cora demanded.

"I don't _know,"_ Rumple snapped in a rage, his face a mask of hatred and horror.

"What?" Cora asked as she took a step back this time. She had just begun to realize her mistake. To see that in her rage she had tipped her hand for the sake of overestimating Rumple's deductive abilities.

"You witch! All this time. All that you did... all that _I_ did and she was _mine_? Mine!?" Rumple demanded as he advanced menacingly on Cora.

"Dear god, you really didn't know," Cora whispered in horrified shock.

"Of course I didn't. Did you really think I would forsake and ruin a child of mine just to fine another? Finding Bae was what drove my whole life as the Dark One. I would never knowingly harm a child of mine the way I did Regina. After all, I'm not you, Cora," Rumple snapped hatefully. "But I promise you this, you traitorous wench. I will find _**my**_ daughter and I swear that she will never fall into your hands again."

Cora's face fell into a vicious scowl as she vanished in a swirl of purple smoke without another word. She had been thrown off substantially by her miscalculations in this conversation and would need time to decide how to proceed.

There was a tense silence in the room before a floored Emma commented, "Well I guess this explains why Henry's hair and chin reminded me of Regina's."

Rumplestiltskin gave the Savior and gimlet stare for a moment before shaking his head in exasperation.

"Papa, is it true? Is the Evil Queen really my sister?" Neal asked, drawing Gold's attention away from the Sheriff.

"It does make sense. After all, the miller's daughter was supposed to give me a child in exchange for spinning her straw into gold. And we were... very close once," Rumple admitted with a degree of regret.

"But could she really hide that from you?" Belle asked as she moved to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"If I didn't bother to look closely enough. If I was too hurt to pay attention... yes. And her rejection of me to stay with Henry did hurt. I thought of Milah again and then she found a way to keep me from taking Regina for myself as well which only distracted me further. I honestly never thought to look. Although I should have," Rumple said with a defeated sigh.

"What do you mean?" Neal asked.

"It explains so much. Regina's extreme talent in magic. The fact that she didn't really resemble Henry at all. The fact Reul Ghorm outright forbade any fairy from answering Regina's wishes as a child despite Cora's constant abuse of her and despite her supposedly noble line. It all fits and I never saw it," Rumple explained. "Damn me to hell, but I never saw it."

"What do you mean?" Emma asked as she stepped closer to stand next to Neal.

"If Regina is my daughter, savior, then she is not of noble blood through her father, Prince Henry. And the Blue Fairy would burn herself to ash before helping an offspring of the Dark One and Cora Mills. She left Cora to torture Regina for most of her childhood. She had to have known," Rumble spat angrily.

"No! Blue would never do something like that," Snow insisted in defense of her own fairy godmother.

"She took the wings and banished a fairy from the realm for saving Regina from a suicide attempt and for trying to find her soul mate for her, Princess. Just after my apparent daughter was forced to marry your father as I recall. Do not tell me what that moth would or would not do. Especially where Regina is concerned. If you doubt my word then ask her yourself. But don't be surprised by what you hear," Rumplestiltskin warned dangerously.

"We'll deal with that later, M&M," Emma cut in to keep things focused. "For now, will you help us find Regina, Gold?"

"I need to check something first," the imp replied as he summoned a vial to his hand in a puff of black smoke.

"What is that?" Emma asked.

"A bit of Regina's blood collected during the time I taught her magic. If what the Queen of Hearts said is true I can make it resonate with my own power now that I know what to look for. No concealing spell will hide it any longer," Rumple answered. "I need to be certain, you understand."

"We get it Papa," Neal interjected with a nod.

Rumple nodded gratefully before uncorking the vial and making a single drop rise out of it with a flourish. He concentrated on the drop of blood suspended in mid air for a moment before saying an incantation in Elvish. Nothing happened for a moment and then a flash of golden light streamed out from the drop in three beams. One pointed to Rumple, the second pointed to Neal, and the third went out the door toward Granny's Diner. "I suppose that I can assume that my grandson is being watched across the street be Miss Lucas and her grandmother?" he asked sardonically as he noted where the third, slightly weaker, ray of light was headed.

"Um yeah. And Mother Superior and the Dwarfs," Emma replied uncertainly.

Rumple simply nodded to himself before waving his hand and dispelling the light show, although the blood drop was still suspended there. "Now, to answer your earlier question about locating my dau- that is to say, Regina. I have changed my mind Miss Swan. It appears that it is most certainly my business and I fully intend to help you. If only to make sure that woman does not find her first."

"Thank you," Emma replied gratefully, unsure what else to say.

The Dark one just nodded before waving his hands in a grand gesture. As he did his globe was summoned. Likewise the images of several painting in the room vanished to reveal maps that were listed with the names "Enchanted Forest," "Wonderland," "Neverland," and "Oz."

"Now that I know of our connection, in addition to my bond with her as her teacher, if Regina is anywhere in any known realm I can at least get a general area. She can shield me from pinpointing her location, of course, but I will have a starting point," Gold explained as the blood drop began to glow bright blue before shooting off into five separate direction as each blue flash of energy struck a different map. All five glowed for a moment before returning to a dormant state.

The group stood there in silence for several tense moments before Snow finally asked, "Well?"

Rumple looked at each map intently before sagging in disappointment as he replied, "She is in none of these realms. Nowhere that I know to even look."

"Does that mean that she's...?" Emma asked with worry.

"No. The spell would not have activated at all were she deceased. This is the locator spell that let me know where and when to look for Bae. I know it inside and out. I can assure you that Regina is still with us. I just... don't know where," Rumple admitted.

"Looks like the daughter surpassed both her parents in this case. You must be very proud," Snow said with a note of frost in her voice.

Rumple chose to ignore Mary Margaret's tone as an impish chuckle, one much more like the imp he had been in the Enchanted Forest than the man had was in Storybrooke, bubbled unbidden from him as he replied, "Oh I am, dearie. Regina was always a prodigy that eclipsed Cora in every way. I had to be careful not to teach her too much even back then. For her to find a way out of this realm where I would not even know what realm to look in. That is impressive. Doubly so with a blood bond between us."

"So we're back to square one, basically?" Emma asked with a resigned sigh.

"Hardly, Sheriff. We know conclusively where Regina is not. Now we just have to discover where she is, and who might have helped her to get there. It's a place to begin my research," Rumple assured her.

"I just hope we can find her before Cora does. I'm really not looking forward to that woman getting her hooks into Regina if she gets there first," David said grimly.

"Oh, you have little fear of that, your Highness. Regina loathes her mother. She loves her too, can't help but love her really, but Cora has done her no favors. Regina has every reason to fear and hate the Queen of Hearts. It hardly took any effort at all for me to prompt her to banish the witch to Wonderland not long after her wedding. And it was Regina herself that asked for the curse to make her barren rather than subject an innocent child to Cora's tender mercies. I agree we must find her first, but unless it somehow protected young Henry I can't see a scenario where she would join her mother. She's been burned far too many times in the past," Rumple noted sourly.

"I just hope that wherever she is, that she's found some happiness," Snow commented regretfully.

* * *

 _ **Auradon: The Isle of the Lost**_

"Let me make this perfectly clear you sad imitation of a human being. If you ever so much as look at Evie or the rest of these children crossly I will find out and I will show you how sadly outclassed you really are in ever daring to assume the title of 'Evil Queen.' You will be begging for months before I give you the privilege of ending you if you ever make her cry again," Regina growled.

"I am her mother," Grimhilde insisted as she tried and failed to stare the younger woman down.

"Not anymore. She is under my care. As are Mal, Jay, and Carlos. And if you move against them I will _end_ you," Regina swore.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_ Okay, left a little bit of a cliffhanger there and tried to get things moving a bit with this one. Let me know what you liked and if you think anything needs to be changed. As always, reviews are the coin of the realm and I look forward to your feedback.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Auradon: Present Day**_

"This was never part of the deal when I agreed to investigate the theft of provisions from the Isle, Fairy Godmother," Regina protested with a distinct tick above her right eye as her fingers twitched while she restrained the urge so start throwing fireballs.

"I know, Regina, but it can't be helped. Your appearance in our world wasn't exactly subtle and, honestly, there are worse ways to leak information about you than people learning you were the lead investigator in the thefts," the Fairy Godmother responded with a sympathetic wince.

"I've had half a dozen Lost Boys come to insist I stop 'punishing' Pan. Several of them multiple times per week no matter how much I insist it was a royal decree and all I did was find the truth. And two of them keep asking me if I am now the 'Villain Kids' mother. Then ask how _they_ could go about getting new mothers," Regina noted tightly. The last thing she liked to be reminded about was why she felt the need to leave Henry, and the Lost Boys brought it all to the forefront of her mind without even trying.

"Well the Lost Boys have always held motherhood in general in the highest regard. Remember they wanted Wendy Darling to be their mother in their initial adventure with her," Fairy Godmother pointed out. "If anything it's the highest form of respect from them to be considered someone's mother. You certainly managed to get their attention."

"And I have your version of Snow calling me at all hours for an in depth interview for the local news program," Regina ground out in frustration.

The Fairy Godmother did her best to hold in a chuckle at that one as she replied, "She has become the most respected investigative reporter in Auradon since the formation of the United States diminished so many of her royal duties. And, quite frankly, your story is already fascinating to those in the know. If only because you've faced such adversity and become so much more of a... whole human being compared to Grimhilde. It's natural for people to be curious," Fairy Godmother explained.

"That half-wit didn't even realize Evie was her stepsister when she announced who made Mal's dress for Ben's Coronation. She didn't even know her name," Regina seethed.

"Believe me, she realized her mistake after. I've had a few calls myself asking if it would be appropriate for her to meet with Evie sometime. I've been putting it off as Evie hasn't expressed any desire to talk to her yet. And honestly, given your new position with the children from the Isle, it kind of will be your decision now. On paper you are their current adviser and liaison acting in loco parentis for them," Fairy Godmother pointed out.

"Wonderful. As if dealing with MY Snow wasn't enough of a headache to help convince me to leave the realm altogether," Regina groused.

"At least her husband isn't a former shepherd here," Fairy Godmother pointed out.

"It wasn't David's occupation that bothered me, dear. If anyone understands that personal station has nothing to do with love, it's me. I just found the man to be irritating. Especially when he decided to take my job and my son both from me. I never should have tried to saddle Kathryn with him during the curse. She deserved much better," Regina sniped.

"Kathryn?" the Fairy Godmother asked.

"Princess Abigail, daughter of King Midas, technically. She had been engaged to David as a replacement for his twin brother James, who had been killed, for a short time before leaving her for Snow back in the Enchanted Forest long before the Dark Curse. James had been adopted as a baby to be the heir for King George's kingdom while David was left on the family farm with his mother. When James was killed the over ambitious lout decided to use his twin and pretend nobody would know the difference despite raising James as an actual prince his whole life. A terrible one, from all accounts, but still a prince. I suppose it would be a grimmer version of the Prince the the Pauper," Regina explained.

"Your world seemed to combine many people's stories together into the same person's life in such unusual ways," the Fairy Godmother noted.

Regina nodded in agreement as she replied, "Personally, I just blame Rumple. More than half of what went wrong in the Enchanted Forest always seemed to lead back to him. I wouldn't be surprised if he somehow did something that harmed the fabric of reality itself."

"I am so glad our version of Rumplestiltskin is nowhere near as powerful," Fairy Godmother responded.

"Me too," Regina agreed. "And that King Adam is a good man that helped to raise a good son in Ben. Mal deserves that kind of happiness in her life."

"And speaking of the kids, what are your thoughts on arranging a video chat for them with their parents to discuss the changes for the Isle?" Fairy Godmother asked.

"I suppose it's necessary. Especially after that debacle with Spirit Week that brought Facilier's daughter and Hook's youngest girl here through Sid- I mean the Genie's daughter's lamp," Regina agreed. Not that she had anything against Freddie Facilier or CJ Hook after meeting them. In many ways Freddie reminded her of a rougher version of Miss Swan's less irritating moments, and she could even see some of the better parts of the Killian Jones she remembered in the somewhat shy and earnestly curious young CJ. If anything, meeting them made Regina want to storm the Isle of the Lost and get as many of the kids away from that hellhole as she could as soon as possible.

"Mmm, and how are thing going with our new... surprise additions to the student roster?" Fairy Godmother asked.

"They're not going to start calling me 'Aunt Gina' the way Carlos does to try to be funny anytime soon. Then again, they seem like they had better relationships with their respective parents growing up. Your Hook is a pompous ass, but he and his crew all seemed to care for CJ and her older sister both. And Freddie isn't exhibiting any behavior that would suggest the Shadow Man was a poor father, other than wanting a little more attention as he kept trying to re-establish his contact with the Other Side. The fact the man established Dragon Hall suggests he cares more about the kids on the Isle than most would give him credit for," Regina reported.

"Point. Although other than Master Yen Sid a great deal of their curriculum is... unique," Fairy Godmother pointed out.

"It is and it isn't," Regina argued. "If you get the kids really talking about the classes, they aren't nearly as sinister as their titles would suggest. For example, Mother Gothel's 'Selfishness Class' is more of a disguised photography course to teach the kids to use digital cameras than anything. And their 'World Domination' class seems to be little more than a less idealized civics course. The curriculum might be from a more cynical point of view, but I would estimate more than half of the classes were only given their current titles as sarcastic jibes at Auradon and the general view of villains here as a whole."

"Hmm, something the kids here from the Isle are managing to change all on their own," Fairy Godmother mused.

"They're good kids in general. Ones raised in deplorable conditions, but contrary to what some here might believe; evil isn't born, it's made," Regina noted. "Not that every parent there is exactly what I would call fit to raise children, even under ideal conditions. I'd personally love to throttle Cruella, Jafar, and Grimhilde if I could. And the less said about your Maleficent, the better. I wish I could talk to MY Mal one last time just so she could set that wretched little excuse for a lizard straight."

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

As Regina contemplated the fate of her Maleficent and how she missed her closest (and if she was being honest with herself only) friend, Rumplestiltskin was thinking of the former Queen of Darkness as well. Mostly how she might be the only one he could trust to help him find his newly discovered daughter. If only he hadn't needed that potion to bring back magic to Storybrooke he would be consulting with her right at that moment. He knew he could easily resurrect her, so to speak. It was a little difficult to consider her completely dead when half-alive version of her dragon form powered by Regina's magic was still in the caves beneath the library at that very moment guarding the failsafe trigger Regina had added to the Dark Curse. He could bring her fully back to life from that state in a matter of minutes with little more than a drop each of Snow's and David's blood.

Of course, he also knew Maleficent's price if he did help her, namely finding her lost daughter here in this realm. Not that the dragon sorceress wouldn't want to help save Regina from Cora herself. If anything Maleficent had always been oddly protective of Regina from the time they met. She would always feel grateful to the former Evil Queen for reigniting the fire in her heart after her defeat by Stephan and Briar Rose. But Rumple knew the woman was too savvy to let such an opportunity to find her child go to waste. And considering all he did to find Baelfire and what he was prepared to do to find Regina, he could certainly relate. He supposed he could call in markers with Cruella and Ursula, but he loathed relying on the two. Neither had any tangible ties to Regina beyond shared villainy to motivate them to play things straight with him and he was disinclined to deal with them unless absolutely necessary.

He supposed he could call upon Miss Swan to help him locate the girl as he had with his son. She at least seemed to care for Regina's welfare for Henry's sake. He imagined the Savior also had certain issues with lost or missing parents that she was projecting onto his grandson. Not that Rumple doubted that Henry missed his mother. The boy was just too stuck in his "Charming" notions of good and evil to admit it. And even that resistance would likely crumble once the heroes in town explained his blood ties to Regina.

But for now he would continue his research before making a decision in regards to Maleficent. If only because he knew what kind of reluctance he would encounter from the Dragon herself and from the Charmings in working together in the wake of their crimes against Regina's best friend. Nobody liked to admit to acts that darkened their hearts, least of all self-proclaimed heroes like Snow White and Prince Charming. Well Snow might help him, but Charming would resist. The longer Regina was missing the more he saw how little the Fairest of Them All was willing to be separated from her stepmother. Some bonds ran deep even when they were mostly one-sided.

His musings were cut short as a voice called out with a reticent, "Any luck, Papa?"

Rumple looked on from the tome he was currently perusing and gave a tired smile toward his son before he admitted, "Not yet, my boy. But I searched for centuries to find a way back to you, Bae. I will find a way to reach your sister, too. I owe her that much. And a great deal more, if I'm honest with myself."

"Emma told me about some of the things you did to her, like the wraith," Neal pointed out with a note of deep disapproval in voice and a sad look in his eye.

Honestly that look stung Rumple more than anger would have. If Bae had been angry with him that would be understandable. But the resigned sadness on has face spoke of him expecting something so horrible from his father. "Son, if I had known I never would have placed Regina in that position. You have to know that," Rumple pointed out.

"I know, Papa. But you let your temper and your power get the better of you again. And if you hadn't my sister might be here right now. If nothing else Cora wouldn't know about Storybrooke or Henry," Neal pointed out.

"And I would not know about your sister. Maybe things do truly happen for a reason. Even ones I will never live down," Rumple theorized.

"Have you thought of what you're going to do when you find her?" Neal asked after a pause to think over what his father had said.

"That will depend on your sister, son. I will do all I can to protect her from Cora. If I could I would shove the witch's heart back in her chest just to see if she was capable of caring about Regina but Regina's vault and whatever remains in it from the Enchanted Forest remains sealed. Granted if it were just blood magic I could get through but she would not be that sloppy. If I tried to force my way in I have little doubt the whole mausoleum would self-destruct to keep me out. Your little sister is nothing of not thorough in regards to security," Rumple replied with a note of pride.

"Will you make her come back here?" Neal asked.

Rumple paused to think that one over before he shook his head and answered, "Not if she's happy. I'll make sure we have a way to reach her and vice-versa but I won't force her hand. I've done far too much of that already."

"You really never knew who she was to you, even when you arranged for her to adopt Henry?" Neal asked after another pause.

"No. I didn't even realize he was yours, Bae. I just knew she was desperate to love someone and would make a good mother in spite of how Cora raised her. Which in turn would draw the Savior here at the right moment to break the curse. At the time it was merely convenient. Funny how fate likes to present itself that way sometimes," Rumple noted with a tired snort. "Have they told Henry yet that Regina is his aunt by blood?" he asked.

"Emma was going to break it to him today. He's still been really withdrawn since Regina left," Neal admitted.

"It's hard to admit you miss your parent when they are a villain," Rumple replied with a pained look.

Neal's expression matched his as he replied, "Missing you wasn't the problem. You choosing power was."

"I know. But we can try to be family here and now, can't we son? You, me, Henry, and Regina when we find her," Rumple implored.

Neal smiled a little as he responded, "I suppose so. I'm surprised you didn't mention Belle, though. Or Emma."

"Sheriff Swan is your business and your business alone, son. As for Belle, I wasn't sure how you would react to my... dating again at this state in my life," Rumple replied.

Neal rolled his eyes a little as he responded, "She's your True Love, Papa. From what I've been told she almost forced the darkness from you with True Love's Kiss."

"I needed my power to get back to you Bae. I couldn't risk letting myself be happy like that until I saw you again," Rumple insisted.

"I know. But the point is, anyone that good for you is not someone I would hold against you. If anything she's a step up from Regina's mom," Neal joked with a sideways glance.

But rather than rise to the bait Rumple shook his head sadly as he replied, "With her heart in her chest Cora was not all bad. Too ambitious for her own good by far, certainly. But she was... loving once upon a time."

"Reminds me of someone I know," Neal said solemnly.

"Perhaps," Rumple conceded. "Although she reminded me a great deal of your mother before things between us went bad, too. Then again, ambition was not something Milah lacked, either," he added darkly. That reminded Rumple that he would have to...deal with Hook the next time he saw the man. The last thing he wanted was to let the man put Belle or Neal in danger. It was long past time the Dark One tied up that particular loose end now that he had something in his life to lose.

"So you'll let Regina stay where she is if she's made a good life for herself? What if she... conquered a realm or something?" Neal asked with some trepidation.

Rumple giggled a bit as he replied, "Been listening to Snow and her shepherd, I see. Or perhaps Miss Lucas? The Blue Fairy?" He let his son stand there abashed for a moment before he answered, "Anyone that actually took the time to see her here would realize that there was a vast difference from Regina Mills the Mayor of Storybrooke and the Evil Queen. Most of the rage and madness I helped ferment in her burnt out within the first couple of years here. She still had her hard edges, of course, but she was nothing like the Evil Queen at the height of her madness. And Regina the person never cared for power beyond how it could be used to protect herself and later, to protect Henry. Power was a shield and a crutch for her, not an ambition."

"But she was the Queen," Neal protested in confusion.

"One manipulated and sold into that position by her mother. My only regret here is that I have no access to Leopold's corpse so I could find someway to desecrate it that would pain that fool in the afterlife. Mr. Glass killing him to prove his love to Regina was too good for that... person," Rumple snarled.

Neal looked taken aback by Rumple's vehemence for a moment before he asked, "The king wasn't as good as Snow remembers him, was he?"

"What king ever is?" Rumple asked back. "And how many children are capable of understanding their father's sins as he dotes on them?"

"I did," Neal pointed out hollowly.

"You were always a bright lad. Snow White was already a young woman before she ever learned to think for, or take care of, herself. Sheltered royalty only see what they want to see. And by the time she saw Regina's pain the Evil Queen was being born right before her eyes," Rumple explained.

"She misses Regina too, I think," Neal pointed out. "I can see it in her eyes when we discuss what we're going to do."

"Of course she does. She loves Regina. She will always see Regina as her mother despite there being less than eight years between them. After all, Leopold didn't remarry immediately after Eva perished. There had to be formal mourning time. Snow couldn't have been older than eight when she lost her mother. She was ten when Regina came into her life and eighteen when she fled from her. Even when Regina hated and hunted her she still considered the Queen to be her mother. That's nearly twenty years of thinking of her as family, not counting the Curse, as compared to maybe four years worth of memories of Eva, if she's lucky. She will always want to at least know Regina is alright. And knowing Snow, she'll want her here and tell herself it's only to keep an eye on her," Rumple explained.

"So you don't think my sister is doing anything bad, Papa?" Neal asked.

"If she wanted a confrontation she would have stayed here, Bae. Wherever she went it was to find peace, not wage a war," Rumple replied. "Not that the heroes will care. Snow will want her here because she wants her mother back no matter what. Reul Ghorm will want her where she can be observed and controlled. And Charming is too stupid to question either of them despite the wisdom in leaving sleeping dragons lie. Of them all only Miss Swan might want to talk to her first before making demands."

"You seem to have them all pegged pretty soundly," Neal noted.

"You have to be good at reading people to make the right kind of deal, son. And I've been dealing with those idiots for decades now in one form or another. Centuries in the case of the Blue Fairy," Rumple pointed out.

Neal pondered that fact for a while before nodding his head in acceptance as he asked, "So what can I do to help?"

Rumple gave his eldest child a warm smile before reaching over to get another book and tossing it to his son. "Another pair of eyes never hurts. Belle is still scouring the library for more books about traversing realms."

* * *

As Rumple and Neal bonded together over the search for Regina, Emma decided it was time to bite the proverbial bullet in regards to filling Henry in on recent happenings. She had wrestled for days with the question of telling her son that his missing adoptive mother was also technically his aunt but finally she came to the conclusion that he needed to know. And so she waited until David was out for his shift at the station and Mary Margaret was doing her best to muddle through Regina's mayoral duties to knock on the door to the room she shared with her child.

"Henry, there's something I need to talk to you about," Emma called out softly.

Henry barely looked up from the Wolverine comic he was listlessly thumbing through, one of the last ones his mo-... Regi-... the Evil Queen had given him as he distractedly called out, "Come in."

Emma stepped into the room cautiously, still arguing with herself on whether letting Henry know what they had learned was good or bad. She let out a gentle "Hey kid," at the sight of the clearly depressed little boy.

"What's up?" Henry asked in mild curiosity. It was obvious Emma was nervous and he had no idea why. Had she learned that he had been talking to Paige recently? Had Paige told Emma what she had told Henry the week before?

"Kid, I... well we... that is, you remember the meeting a few days ago when Cora popped up at your Grandpa Gold's shop?" Emma fumbled.

"Yeah?" Henry asked, confused. "Grandma said they argued about my mo- the Evil Queen being gone because Cora thought Grandpa Gold had helped her leave, but he hadn't. Then there was the spell he used to see where I was, just in case, that lit up on my chest."

Emma nodded in response to Henry as he recounted what he knew before she sighed as she replied, "That's the one. The thing is we learned something else about your mom. Er- your other mom. Regina, that is."

Henry looked interested for a moment before he closed down and scowled as he replied, "Save it. I don't care."

"Kid, don't be that way. I know you're worried about her. We all are to some degree," Emma protested.

"I'm not. She doesn't care about me. Why should I care about her?" Henry shot back angrily.

"Henry, you know that isn't true. Regina loves you. She always has. She's just... really crappy at dealing with people sometimes," Emma countered.

"No she isn't. She just needed some villain kids to take care of instead. Real family. She could never love a hero's son, so she left," Henry insisted.

"Henry, where would you get a crazy idea like that? I mean I know it must have been hard when you learned your were adopted but even the people in this town that hate your mom's guts will tell you that she loved you with all her heart. I mean even her letter to me made it pretty clear she left because she thought it was best for you," Emma insisted.

"That's not true! I saw it for myself! Paige showed me last week," Henry shouted back with tears in his eyes. "She found a new family already. With a real daughter that was really hers."

"Henry, what are you talking about? You've seen Regina? Where? How?" Emma asked as she knelt down and put her hands on her son's shoulders.

Henry looked reluctant to answer before looking down, ashamed as he explained, "Last week, like I said. Paige, you know Jefferson's daughter Grace?" before looking up into Emma's face to see her nod in recognition before looking back down as he continued. "Anyway, some of the kids were talking about how happy I should be that the Evil Queen was gone at school and it made me really sad so... I went off to be alone during lunch. Paige found me crying and I admitted that even if she was mean and evil I still missed my mom. So she told me that if I went with her after school, she could show her to me."

"Henry, how could Paige show you where Regina is?" Emma insisted.

"With a hat," Henry explained. "Even though she's not living with her dad he's been wanting to spend time with her and he's been teaching her about realm jumping with hats because it's in her blood. Anyway, a few days before that he had shown her a new hat he made. One that went to a realm different from here or the Enchanted Forest. She told me her dad had used it to send the Evil Queen away to somewhere she could be happy. He said he rather she be happy where she couldn't return from than be here where she could stop him from seeing Paige."

"He'd give her a perfect life just to keep her out of his? What is he the Mad Hatter from Batman now?" Emma asked with a snort of derision.

"Huh?" Henry asked.

"Before your time kid. One of the Batman: the Animated Series villains was Jervis Tetch, the Mad Hatter. In the show he used mind control tech and was obsessed with Alice in Wonderland. Anyway, he knocked Batman out in one episode and connected him to dream machine that would create a perfect world from your own mind in order to keep Batman busy. After Batman realized it was a dream and broke free to wake up the Hatter admitted he gave Batman a perfect world, just to keep him out of the Hatter's life. It sounds like Jefferson was taking a page from his book, that's all. Keep going," Emma explained.

Henry smiled a little, glad to see his mom had some comic book interest even if it was more about DC than Marvel before he continued, "Anyway, Paige isn't really that good yet, we cold only make a scene appear for like a minute and there was only sound for a few seconds but she had like four kids there with her they were all treating her like she was their mom. Paige explained that the Mad Hatter still looks in on mom occasionally and that she's made a life for herself there taking care of those... villain kids."

"What makes them villain kids? Were they torching a building or something?" Emma asked in confusion. She was about five seconds from taking off to beat some answers out of Jefferson over this whole mess but she wanted to understand what was upsetting Henry so much first.

"No, their parents are the big time villains in that world, even if they're all in jail or something. One was Maleficent's daughter, one was Jafar's son, one was Cruella de Vil's son and the last one..." Henry trailed off as he fought back tears.

"The last one what, Henry?" Emma asked gently.

"She was the Evil Queen's daughter. Or the Evil Queen from that world anyway. She looks like a younger version of mom only with this _stupid_ blue hair. And Cruella's son called her 'Auntie Gina' and the girl called her 'Mommy.' So you see? She left me to find a place where she has a real kid that's hers. She doesn't care about me. She wanted a real family," Henry explained desperately.

Emma hugged the distraught child tightly as she said, "That's not true Henry. I don't doubt Regina could be a mother to someone that needed it, but she wouldn't replace you. She was a good mom to you and loved you the best way she knew how. Never question that," Emma insisted.

"Then why did she leave?" Henry asked piteously.

"Because she thought it was what you wanted. What was best for you. And the rest of us didn't exactly make her thing that was the wrong way to look at things," Emma reluctantly admitted.

Henry looked her in the face for a full minute before he broke down in tears and hugged her tightly again. They stayed that way for several moments before he finally composed himself enough to ask, "What did you want to tell me? About my mom?"

Emma felt her reluctance return but knew there was no turning back as she admitted, "Well, Cora kind of made some really quick judgments and revealed some things while she was arguing with Gold."

"Like what?" Henry asked.

"Like... Prince Henry Sr. wasn't Regina's real father," Emma explained.

Henry looked confused for a minute at that revelation. His namesake wasn't his adopted mom's father? "Then who was?" Henry asked.

Emma looked like she wanted to be anywhere else before she finally sucked it up and admitted, "Gold. The reason he did the spell that lit up on you wasn't to check up on you. He use some stored vial of Regina's blood to find her relatives. It lit up him, you, and your dad. She thought he had known all along but it was as big a shock to him as anyone. He was pretty pissed at Cora when it all came out. If she hadn't poofed away I think he might have attacked her then and there."

"So... Regina's my aunt? Like my real aunt?" Henry asked.

"By blood? Yeah. But to her she's your mom. And I think deep down you kind of agree with her on that. Don't you?" Emma prodded.

"Yeah," Henry admitted sadly. "But you're my mom, too," he insisted.

"I know kid," Emma tenderly agreed as she hugged him.

"Ma? What are we going to do about my mom?" Henry asked after a moment.

"Well, first I'm going to call Snow and David. Then I'm going to get some answers from Jefferson. And explain why it's a bad idea to keep certain types of secrets. Especially with a psycho like Cora running around," Emma all but growled. "Then we'll figure out a way to find Regina. That sound good to you?"

"Yeah. We can call it Operation: Welcome Home," Henry enthused as the light seemed to come back to his eyes.

"Sounds like a plan kid," Emma agreed with a smile.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

As one drama unfolded in Storybrooke, Regina was dealing with another in Auradon as she checked in on the Villain Kids after their calls home only to encounter an inconsolably crying Evie hiding in her dorm room. Mal left Jay and Carlos to comfort the terrified girl as she joined Regina out in the hall to explain the situation.

"Mal, what is going on? What is wrong with Evie?" Regina asked even as she felt the beginnings of an anger not seen since her days as the Evil Queen begin to burn in her belly.

Mal looked back at the closed door behind her in concern before scowling fiercely as she asked, "Well you know how we got to call home to explain things about how food shipments will improve and to check in with our parents, other than mine, right?"

"Of course, the Fairy Godmother and I approved it together ahead of the larger press releases about the upcoming trials," Regina answered.

"Well it started out okay. I mean Carlos didn't even bother to talk to Cruella after she started ranting about skinning Dude for new earmuffs, but everyone else was... tolerable. And apparently Grimhilde was happy Evie got mentioned for making my dress for Ben's coronation. And proud she was being accepted here. And that we basically made her leader of the Isle in my mom's place. Unfortunately, Evie... mistook her good mood for more than it was," Mal explained.

"What happened?" Regina asked with a feeling of dread.

"Evie decided it was a good time to mention Doug. And ask permission for them to see each other," Mal replied darkly.

"Damn. I was afraid it was something like that. How bad?" Regina asked.

"There was a lot of yelling. And talk of banishment and being disowned. And some things that were less polite. Things you don't say to your own kid. The kind of stuff my Mom would never say to me. And she would threaten me outright if I got out of line. It scared Evie. A lot. And broke her heart. She's terrified Grimhilde will find some way to have Doug killed now for 'sullying her so no prince would have her'," Mal said with disgust, using air quotes as she repeated one of Grimhilde's nicer little rants.

"That miserable, jealous, old sow. How _dare_ she speak to Evie that way," Regina snarled as her fingers began to smoke in her anger. She had half a mind to march right to the Isle of the Lost and rip that fat fool's heart out before crushing it in front of her overly-made up face.

"Right there with you," Mal agreed even as she looked worriedly at Regina's still smoking fingers.

The former Evil Queen noticed Mal's look of trepidation after a moment and then noted her own hands. "Sorry, let my magic get away from me,"she admitted sheepishly.

"Magic is emotion. At least the way you learned to do it. Got it," Mal dismissed. She was more than a little pissed off herself, anyway. "But the question now is what are we going to do? I mean can the Evil Queen get to Doug? The whole thing with Freddie and CJ shows the Isle isn't as impenetrable as it used to be."

"Well first, I'm going in there to help reassure Evie that everything will be alright and help her calm down. Then I'm going to speak with Fairy Godmother and have custody of you four put under me directly because I'm not risking Grimhilde or her remaining fellow cronies to your mother using rights as parents to try to get to any of you. Then... I'm heading to the Isle to speak with Evie's... birth mother about proper decorum. I was going as part of the envoy to hash out logistics with the new deliveries anyway. But now I have a more important reason to be there, and if she ever speaks to Evie like that again she will regret it. Deeply," Regina swore. Nobody messed with her kids and lived to tell the tale. Not while she was around to stop it.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Well here's another chapter, finally. The confrontation between Regina and Grimhilde will obviously get pushed back a chapter. There was just too much that needed to be covered here. Next up should be the confrontations with Grimhilde, Jefferson, and Regina offering to formally adopt Evie and Mal at the very least.

As always let me know what you think and I welcome comments, criticism, and suggestions. Feedback is ever the coin of the realm to keep me going.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Storybrooke**_

"So Jefferson is the one that helped Regina to leave the realm? But he doesn't even _like_ Regina after she let Paige stay with her adopted family from the curse," Mary Margaret commented with a puzzled expression. She and David had both come to the apartment the moment Emma had called them with news about Regina's whereabouts.

"And I thought his hat was destroyed? He went more than a little nuts insisting there was nothing he could do without it during that mess where Whale reanimated Daniel. I was pretty clear about wanting his help to get to you both while you were stuck in the Enchanted Forest," David added with a displeased look.

"I'm guessing being a hatter means he can make more hats. And we can ask him about the rest when we interrogate him over where he sent Regina," Emma pointed out.

"I still don't understand why he would help Regina?" Snow asked with a sense of trepidation. That just didn't sit right with her. Then again, few things did the longer Regina was missing from town without a word.

"If I had to make a guess from what Paige told Henry, because it helped him. If Regina's gone she can't interfere with him trying to get his daughter back," Emma pointed out.

"But she can't do that any more anyway. Your mother is the mayor now," David interjected.

"Regina was still the one that put things in motion to keep Paige with her new family until Archie signed off on Jefferson being fit to sue for custody. And do you really think lacking formal power would stop Regina of all people from enforcing it? Or that Jefferson would take that kind of chance?" Emma asked with a skeptical look.

"Do you think he banished Regina to this new realm against her will?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Not the way Paige explained it to Henry. Besides, she wouldn't have left notes behind if she didn't go along with it," Emma replied with a scowl. "Although Henry really paid more attention to the kids there she was taking care of than anything else. The way he described it, this Auradon place was like some more modern version of Fairy Tale land or something," Emma explained.

"So now what?" David asked as he tried to wrap his head around what little Emma had relayed about the realm where Regina found herself.

"Now we ask Jefferson a few questions about a fairly high profile missing persons case," Emma replied with determination.

"I can call Belle and Blue and see if they can find anything about this Auradon place," Mary Margaret suggested.

"Maybe we should hold off on Blue," Emma warned. Gold's recriminations about the Blue Fairy were still fresh in her mind.

"Emma, you don't honestly believe that Blue really-" Snow began.

"I know at that moment Gold was pretty sure she did. And seeing Cora I can't say the idea of Regina being abused as a kid was far-fetched. Look, if nothing else, ask her about it first, okay?" Emma implored.

"Honey, it might be better to err on the side of caution here," David chimed in with a worried look. In all fairness he was less inclined to listen to advice from Blue after being pressured the way they were to send Emma through the wardrobe. Something about the fairy always felt like she had a greater agenda. And on occasion Snow could still be too trusting for her own good.

Snow looked upset an the insinuations being madeabout her fairy godmother, but she also had to concede to both Emma's and David's points. It might be better to ask Blue about Regina and her past than to trust blindly. "So do we call Mr Gold and let him know?"

"No. Not yet anyway," Emma denied.

"Emma, he's her father," Snow protested.

"And Cora's her mother. What's your point? Did you forget that it was him that sent that knock-off Dementor after Regina that ended up getting us sent to the Enchanted Forest to begin with? After he had promised Belle he wouldn't attack her?" Emma pointed out.

"But he didn't know," Mary Margaret argued. Try as she might she could not divorce her own feeling about her separation from Emma from the current situation.

"Knowing it was slightly more evil than we thought doesn't make the situation any better. Almost every rotten thing that seems to go on here or the Enchanted Forest seems to trace back to Gold. And the ones that don't usually have Blue involved somehow. For once I'd like to leave them both out of things until we know what's going on," Emma insisted.

"That might be a little hard, Emma. Especially if we plan on getting Regina back," David pointed out.

Emma stared at her father, upset, before deflating a bit as she conceded his point. "I know. But for now, let's find out where we stand before we start recruiting imps and fairies to get involved."

"Good enough. Let's go find Regina," Snow declared with a determined look in her eye.

For her part Emma remained silent as she followed her parents out. Everyone in town seemed to be treating this like a rescue mission or something. Like they just expected Regina to come back and deal with Cora because they told her to. That wasn't the Regina Mills Emma knew. The Regina she knew wouldn't kowtow to anyone's demands except for maybe Henry's. And Emma honestly wanted to know more before she committed to any course of action.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

The first word that came to Regina's mind upon seeing the residents of the Isle of the Lost in person was... downtrodden. There was an air of despair everywhere you looked as she approached what was formerly Maleficent's castle (and what a sad approximation it was of HER Mal's castle at that) in the same limousine that had first brought Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos to Auradon Prep along with the two assistants/guards that would escort her to her meeting along and three other guards that would remain with the car.

"Remember Ms. Mills, you have two backup panic buttons on you in addition to your stun gun and your earpiece to keep in contact with us here at the cars. If the villains give you any trouble the rest of the security team will be there within three minutes. And if it gets really bad, we're authorized to open enough of a hole in the top of the barrier that you can use your own magic before they realize it," the driver, and head of her security detail, informed her. He was the same driver, in fact, that Mal had appreciated for his somewhat nasty demeanor when he had first picked up the Descendants.

"I was the queen of a mostly hostile kingdom that loathed me for nearly twenty years before my Snow overthrew and banished me. I can deal with my more pathetic counterpart for a hour. And it will take more than the pound puppy and Jafar backing her up to change my opinion," Regina responded with an icy glare.

The driver nodded his head in agreement as he replied, "Fair enough, ma'am. Just keep an eye out. I know a few kids that would be more than a little upset if I let anything happen to you, and they all have the ear of the king."

"If I were you, I'd be more worried about Grimhilde," Regina purred dangerously.

"Not a concern. Most of the staff and faculty heard about how she spoke to her daughter over her and Dopey's boy. I don't think she'd have too many people worried for her safety after that," the driver responded.

Regina's expression was predatory enough to elicit shivers in everyone else in the car as she replied, "Good."

The rest of the trip was made in silence as Regina reviewed the files she had with her again a final time before the limo came to a stop. Regina stepped out of the car with the poise and grace of a queen as she sent her icy glare in the direction of anyone that looked at her too closely. More than one of Maleficent's former goons that were standing guard in front of the castle, as well as a few overly curious villains milling about looking at the car, flinched back at the sight of her. Locked away and forced to cooperate to survive they may have been, but they had not forgotten the sight of someone dangerous when they encountered her. And Regina exuded the kind of frightful power and authority that had kept Maleficent in charge of the Isle of the Lost for the last twenty years until her confrontation with her daughter Mal had left the Dragon Queen in the form of a small purple and black bearded dragon lizard back in Auradon.

The tense moment was only broken as a voice cut in with the overly formal tones Regina recognized from her days of holding court as Grimhilde approached and announced, "You must be the contingent from Auradon. Welcome to my home."

Regina's first instinct was to say something catty about the castle being Maleficent's home, and thus rightfully Mal's as her heir, but restrained herself for the moment as she gave a dangerous smile and replied, "Yes. I'm Regina Mills, and I'll be the one going over what was discovered in regards to the supply shipments to the Isle and how to handle the increased provisions that will be coming in," as she looked Grimhilde in the eye for the first time. Her first thought upon seeing her in person was to make sure to take the time to go jogging in the mornings from now on, just in case.

"Ah, yes. The new 'other' Evil Queen in the news reports," Grimhilde noted drolly as she inspected this woman that supposedly her from another world. She had to admit she was not impressed. This Regina was dressed in a woman's power suit rather than stately royal robes and that scar on her lip... how repugnant. No queen should allow her beauty to be marred in such a fashion. Still, there was an air of danger around the younger woman that gave Grimhilde pause. And she would never underestimate the cunning and ambition of a woman that was basically her. But, she still could not help but note, "My what a nasty scar. Whatever did you do to yourself, my dear?"

"Regina ground her teeth a bit at the question. She had no intention of ever discussing how her lip had been scarred with this fat fool, nor did she appreciate the woman speaking to her in such a tone. It reminded Regina far too much of Cora for her own liking. "I don't think that's really relevant to my visit here. If we could get started, we do have quite a bit to cover," she noted frostily.

Grimhilde gave a courtly titter of a laugh, mistakenly thinking she had gained some kind of advantage in the situation with her little quip, as she replied, "Quite so. Please come with me. Your... escorts can remain out here."

As Regina followed Grimhilde inside flanked by her two personal guards for the duration of he journey the driver stood stoically in position outside of the limo with a second and third guard flaking him. The trio waited until everyone was well out of earshot before the guard on the driver's right noted, "The Evil Queen has no clue does she? Lady Mills is going to kick her ass."

"Oh yeah," the driver replied in a deadpan.

* * *

The actual meeting in regards to the the change in supplies was rather mundane and boring. Yes, from now on better, fresh, food would be supplied. No, cosmetics beyond basic toiletries and those donated to the people of the Isle would not be included shipments. Yes, improved school supplies would be given to Dragon Hall. No, magic would not be introduced in any way to the Isle. Yes, some construction teams would be allowed to improve general infrastructure on the Isle on a quarterly basis. No, wifi and other forms of outside contact that could not be monitored would not be allowed. Yes, more children from the Isle would be allowed to attend Auradon Prep, including Freddie Facilier and CJ Hook. No, their parents would not be escorting them at this time. Yes, those not slated for Auradon Prep would soon be given the opportunity to apply for public and/or trade schools off of the Isle. No, they would not be forced to leave unless they chose to do so.

It was that last point about the children of the Isle that brought up a question that Regina he been anticipating and dreading with equal measure, "And when will Evie be returning to the Isle? I assume she will be here for the summer holiday?"

"No, she will not. All four of the original children have requested to remain in Auradon and King Benjamin has granted the asylum. None of the them will be returning here," Regina informed her coolly.

"What? But I need Carlos here to brush my furs and massage my bunions. How dare you keep him from me?" Cruella insisted from where she sat to Grimhilde's right.

"And I need Jay to help stock the shelves in my store," Jafar piped up from her left.

"And I want Evie here where I can keep an eye on her well away from that... dwarf boy she spoke of. This is completely unacceptable. They are our children and they will be returned to us," Grimhilde ordered.

"Not anymore. First of all, they are people, not possessions. Secondly, I was actually granted overall custody of each of your children after you were all determined to be unfit parents. So I'm afraid you'll have to find other servants," Regina pointed out with a glare at Cruella that made the woman flinch back, "thieves," she spat at Jafar, "and pawns to you own delusions," she added with a wicked sneer at Grimhilde.

"This is preposterous. How dare you presume to keep my child from me?" Grimhilde all but roared in outrage.

"You seem to be missing the point that you are not here of you own free will, your Majesty. You are a prisoner here serving a life sentence. As is every other resident of the Isle that was not born here. Your children are innocent and free to remain in the outside world if they wish. Any power you felt you had over them ended the moment they stepped past that barrier around this place. Your opinion on how they should lead their lives ended the day they set foot in Auradon proper.," Regina informed them with a cruel smile.

"How dare you!? Who do you think you are!?" Grimhilde demanded as she stood up and stomped toward the younger woman in an attempt to physically intimidate her.

Regina's aides/guards stood as well in response the the physical threat onto to step back when Regina motioned for the to do so. "Who am I? I'll tell you who I am. I'm Regina Mills. Someone that bore the title of Evil Queen with far more dignity and success than you could ever claim. And if you think you can try to bully me to get your own way you will learn very quickly just how far you're out of your league. You have no idea what I'm capable of when pushed, Grimhilde, but you are very close to finding out."

"You dare speak to me in that wa-ghrk?" Grimhilde ranted only to be cut short as Regina grasped her firmly by the throat.

"Shut. Up," Regina ordered in a staccato tenor. "I've had more than enough of your grandstanding, you miserable bloated has-been. I'm going to say this one more time because you seem to be too stupid to understand what I'm telling you. Evie is no longer your concern. Nor are Mal, Jay, or Carlos. Freddie and CJ are only the concern of their respective parents since _their parents_ don't seem to be broken and useless approximations of human beings when it comes to parenting. And if you so much as think of doing anything against any of them I will show you hell until I personally carve out each and every one of your hearts and crush them with my bare hands. And I won't do you the courtesy of using magic to do so. Do I make myself clear?" Regina hissed as she finally released the now deeply frightened Grimhilde.

"You can't do that," the Evil Queen of Auradon insisted once she regained a bit of her composure. "They are ours to do with and punish as we see fit."

"Let me make this perfectly clear, you sad imitation of a human being. If you ever so much as look at Evie or the rest of those children crossly I will find out and I will show you how sadly outclassed you really are in ever daring to assume the title of 'Evil Queen.' You will be begging for months before I give you the privilege of ending your life if you ever make her cry again," Regina growled.

"I am her mother," Grimhilde insisted as she tried and failed to stare the younger woman down.

"Not anymore. She is under my care. As are Mal, Jay, and Carlos. And if you move against them I will _end_ you," Regina swore.

With that said Regina gave each and every one of the villains in the room a cool stare before she turned and strode out of the room with her head held high, her two guards trailing behind her in shock. They knew Lady Mills could be scary sometimes but they had never seen her that upset before. It was a sobering experience to say the least.

"Well that went well," Cruella noted sarcastically once Regina and the other were well and truly gone.

"What did you expect? Auradon finally has something we never had to consider before," Jafar replied, sounding for once like the Grand Vizier he had once been rather than the common hustler and fence he had become on the Isle.

"What's that?" Cruella asked.

"A villain of their own. One as ruthless as any of us. And apparently one dedicated to their side," Jafar pointed out.

"Well that's a cheery thought," Cruella snorted with a roll of her eyes.

As for Grimhilde, she remained there in silence, still feeling Regina's hand around her throat. That had been no bluff. No posturing. The other woman would have ended her life then and there is she felt the need to do so. The game had just changed dramatically.

* * *

 _ **Storybooke**_

Jefferson looked remarkably calm for someone that had the town Sheriff, her head deputy, and the acting mayor all standing in his living room glaring at him to one degree or another. Of course, it wasn't exactly like there was anything any of them could do to him from his point of view. Although he did have a pretty good idea of the point of the visit given how his little Grace had told him immediately what she had shown to Henry.

"Something I can help you with, your Majesties?" the Mad Hatter asked with a smarmy grin as he sat bonelessly down on his couch in defiance of the collective ire of the White dynasty.

"You can start by wiping the stupid grin off your face, Jefferson," Emma reported as she resisted the urge to grasp the Hatter by his collar and slam him up against something to wipe the knowing smirk off of his face.

"And you can tell us what you know about Regina," Snow added with a note of command in her voice that sounded so very foreign compared to her cursed persona of Mary Margaret Blanchard.

"Oh I know several things about her Majesty. We go way back you know. I helped get her to Wonderland to retrieve her father from the Queen of Hearts. She abandoned me there in a spiteful double-cross-" Jefferson began.

"You and Frankenstein lied to her about resurrecting Daniel on Rumplestiltskin's orders to start the whole mess," David reminded him angrily. He was still upset with the Hatter for lying about being able to make another portal and as much as David disliked Regina, he still felt sympathy for what she had faced in town over Daniel's "second" death.

"Not all of us are in a position to resist the Dark One's commands and live to tell the tale," Jefferson pointed out uncomfortably.

"Cut the crap and tell us what you know Jefferson. We're already aware you were the one that helped to send Regina away from this world," Emma shot back with a scowl.

Jefferson looked defiant as he asked, "Is this where I tell you I wish to exercise my right to remain silent, Sheriff?"

"Only if you're fine with my right to punch you in your smug little face for making Henry upset that you sent his mother away," Emma growled back.

"Really? Honestly I did the boy a favor. Even Regina agreed with me over that. And it's not like anyone cared at the time. I gave her a full week to observe Auradon with my newest hat before she agreed to go there," Jefferson responded sardonically. "As I recall, it all started with your pleasant family dinner to celebrate your return fro the Old Country where you left her forgotten out on the street. I came upon her nearly in tears at being on the outside looking in with her own child. You could say that on that matter, I could relate."

"And the fact she's not here to stop you if she wanted to had nothing to do with it, I'm sure?" Emma asked sarcastically.

Jefferson shrugged as he replied, "I may be called mad, but even I can appreciate a win-win situation, Savior. I gave Regina the chance at a family that would not reject her and have the opportunity to start getting MY family back. She's happy, I'm happy, the town's happy. Everybody wins."

"And my son is devastated as he gets it in his head that Regina either never loved him or doesn't anymore. Which anyone in town, including the people that hate her, would tell you is total bullshit," Emma replied angrily.

"To be fair, I didn't think Henry would care any more than anyone else. He certainly seemed to be happy abandoning her for his grandfather while you were gone and paid her no mind after you returned," Jefferson noted.

"Right now I could care less what you tell yourself to justify all of this in your twisted little head. I want to know the details of how Regina ended up in this Auradon place and how we can get to her to help her come home before Cora gets to her," Emma responded.

"Maybe you can start with what you told me about not being able to make another hat to jump worlds when Emma and Snow were lost," David interjected angrily.

"That was a bit of a fib. I can make hats of course, but magic does not work exactly right here all the time and isn't nearly as strong is it is back home. I could look into other realms but not go there. Regina actually had to help me power the hat that sent her to Auradon. As for going to her or getting her back, without something like a magic bean or another portal jumper it's still very much a one way trip. Something the Evil Queen was fully aware of when she departed," the Hatter replied.

"You mean a portal jumper like you?" Snow asked with an intense gaze.

Jefferson's face broke into an unhinged smile as he replied, "Not really. There isn't enough power here by far for me to make the trip even if I wanted to. And I doubt the Blue Fairy could make it one way with all the fairy dust she has put together. Gold might have the power but he would be no more eager to help you get back the Queen than I would; and Maleficent is dead. There is nowhere near the magic left available to power a portal. Truth be told, Grace showed amazing potential to be able to show Henry anything on her own since the boy has no inherent magical abilities. Even I had to have Regina's help to enchant a mirror to show her a peek into Auradon. My little girl will one day surpass me."

"Good for you, now where is the hat?" Emma demanded angrily. She had no intention of telling Jefferson of Regina's recently discovered connection to Gold or of the Dark One's sudden eagerness to reach her before Cora could find her.

Jefferson looked a little puzzled by her reaction as he stood up and moved to a curio case before reaching in to take the over-sized top hat from the top shelf and hand it to the Sheriff. "There you go," he replied puzzled as Emma all but snatched it from his hand.

"Now can you show us this world where Regina is?" Emma asked impatiently.

"Maybe. There should be some residual magic of hers in the mirror in my workshop to direct things a bit. But there wouldn't enough left for more than a few seconds. And honestly, I don't see why you care?" Jefferson noted in confusion.

"You mean other than my kid crying over losing his mother every night when he thinks we can't hear him, the town all but falling apart since Regina was the only one here who knew ANYTHING about running a modern American small town, or how freaking Cora is ready to tear this place apart trying to find her and might end up getting to Regina first?" Emma asked testily.

Jefferson looked dismissive as he replied, "With no frame of reference Cora will never reach Auradon. She could look for a thousand years and would still have to be extremely lucky to happen upon it by chance without any idea of where to go. And knowing her as I do she will give up and return to either the Enchanted Forest or Wonderland to continue her search once she's accepted Regina will not return here. There's nothing to keep her interest here beyond her daughter. Even killing Queen Snow would be useless without Regina to present her heart to. For Cora it has always been about her daughter in one way or another. Take it from a man that has suffered the 'mercies' of the hospitality of the Queen of Hearts."

The trio looked more than little upset at what Jefferson had told them until Emma's face lit up as she asked, "What about my magic? Can we use that to power the mirror or whatever?"

"Emma are you sure?" Snow asked worriedly but with a note of hope in her voice.

"It could be dangerous," David agreed with far more reservation.

"We need to know. If nothing else, I need to see Regina with my own eyes," Emma insisted.

Jefferson thought things over for a moment before he replied, "I suppose it would work as a basic battery given that Madam Mayor has already set things in motion with my mirror, so to speak."

"Then let's do this," Emma said with determination as she followed Jefferson toward his workroom. Once there the group gathered in front of a mirror.

Jefferson had Emma hold the hat in front of her upside down, as if asking for money before standing to the side and placing his left hand of the hat and his right hand on the mirror. "Concentrate on wanting to provide energy to power the mirror, Savior. Think of what you wish to see in your mind's eye and of making it possible. I'll do the rest," he instructed.

"If this hurts her or sends her away you're not getting away a second time, Jefferson," David warned as he kept a careful eye on the Mad Hatter.

"The worst that could happen is a failure to make a connection without someone that knows how to make a portal wishing to do so. Even Regina needed me to direct her energy to create her portal to Auradon," the Hatter assured Charming.

"Okay, here goes nothing," Emma said as she concentrated on wanting to see Regina. Nothing seemed to happen for several seconds until her hands began to glow with a soft while light."

"That's it, just keep it going until I can establish the connection," Jefferson encouraged as his face became a mask of concentration. A few more seconds passed until the mirror lit up like a television screen to reveal the right of a blue-haired teenage girl that had clearly been crying being comforted by a purple-haired girl of roughly the same age.

"Ah, still set to who Regina had been watching. For a moment I thought it would find your closest counterpart to begin with as it had for her. I suppose she did still have some power left directing things," Jefferson noted. "Thank you, Sheriff, I can handle things from here," he added as he moved to take Emma's place and took the hat full from her hands.

"Who is that?" Snow asked in fascination at the sight of the child.

"That would be Evie, the local Evil Queen's biological daughter. The child comforting her is Mal, the local version of Maleficent's daughter," Jefferson explained.

The mention of Maleficent's daughter made both Snow and Charming pale as they each wondered the same thing, _Was this what the child they had banished to another realm would have looked like if they had not followed the advice of the Sorcerer's Apprentice_?

"Yeah, Henry was not thrilled about her. I think he's kind of jealous," Emma noted as she took in how much Evie looked like a younger Regina.

"Is...is Daniel her father?" Snow asked, heartbroken. The girl, though clearly upset, looked so much like the Regina that had saved her so long ago. She still had that light in her eyes that had died in Regina's own alongside her True Love.

"No idea. Grimhilde, the local version of the Evil Queen, never mentioned the name of Evie's father that I saw. Nor did Maleficent discuss Mal's father," Jefferson admitted disinterestedly.

"Henry said Regina was taking care of them? Along with Jafar's and Cruella's sons?" Emma asked.

"Technically she has become the advisor and de-facto guardian for all of the local villain children attending the local preparatory academy that the current royal heirs and other prominent children in the area attend. She'll also be teaching several classes based on economics and accounting in the next term. And was instrumental in ferreting out several plots from people that were stealing food and other supplies earmarked to be sent to the prison colony where all of the local villains are kept, the Isle of the Lost. I must admit the locals were more willing to accept her than I ever believed possible," Jefferson explained.

"What line did she give them to make them accept her?" David asked skeptically.

"None. Just the truth. They actually had a spell on the room to force her to tell the truth when they first interrogated her upon her arrival. But when you consider how unpleasant her counterpart is by comparison and the fact she never wronged anyone in Auradon itself, I suppose giving her a chance wasn't that hard. And they were thrilled to have a administrator of Regina's skill at diligence on staff," the Hatter replied.

"Yeah, Regina always loved her paperwork," Emma snorted with an almost fond roll of her eyes.

"She's welcome to it," David snorted back in disgust. He had not enjoyed running the town while Emma and Mary Margaret had been gone. Truth be told, if the people wouldn't have rioted, he would have given Regina back her job after the first three days. Budget reports were not his idea of a good time.

"But where is Regina?" Snow asked after looking at the upset child for a time.

"Give me a moment, your Highness. I will try to lock in on her," Jefferson replied as the image blurred for a minute before coalescing back on Regina's meeting with Grimhilde.

Emma held back a laugh at the sight of Grimhilde as she dryly noted, "I see now why Regina's keeps to the kale salads and other veggies."

"Is she wearing the outfit from _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_?" Show asked in amazement. Regina would never have been caught dead wearing something that ridiculous.

"Yes, you'll find that the vast majority of our counterparts in Auradon followed the Disney versions of their stories almost to the letter up to and including their deaths. The deceased villains were resurrected via a ridiculously powerful ritual because the eradication of most of the darkness from the realm had made magic so unstable it threatened to tear everything apart. The solution was then to create the Isle of the Lost, a prison colony with a barrier around it to keep magic out much the way our barrier in Storybrooke keeps magic in. All technology outside of the Isle uses magic to power it," Jefferson told them.

The conversation would have continued in that vein had Grimhilde not shot up from her seat to try to confront Regina.

"Whoa, old fat-Regina looks pissed," Emma noted.

"So does ours," Snow pointed out as she took in Regina's own murderous expression. As she waved off her guards and grabbed her counterpart by the throat.

"Wow, shit just got real," Emma commented as she silently rooted for their own Evil Queen without even realizing what she was doing.

"Is there some way to hear what they're saying?" David asked in frustration.

"Just a moment," Jefferson replied as he increased his concentration once again.

" _I'm going to say this one more time because you seem to be too stupid to understand what I'm telling you. Evie is no longer your concern. Nor are Mal, Jay, or Carlos. Freddie and CJ are only the concern of their respective parents since_ their parents _don't seem to be broken and useless approximations of human beings when it comes to parenting. And if you so much as think of doing anything against any of them I will show you hell until I personally carve out each and every one of your hearts and crush them with my bare hands. And I won't do you the courtesy of using magic to do so. Do I make myself clear?" Regina hissed as she finally released the now deeply frightened Grimhilde._

" _You can't do that," the Evil Queen of Auradon insisted once she regained a bit of her composure. "They are ours to do with and punish as we see fit."_

 _"Let me make this perfectly clear, you sad imitation of a human being. If you ever so much as look at Evie or the rest of those children crossly I will find out and I will show you how sadly outclassed you really are in ever daring to assume the title of 'Evil Queen.' You will be begging for months before I give you the privilege of ending your life if you ever make her cry again," Regina growled._

 _"I am her mother," Grimhilde insisted as she tried and failed to stare the younger woman down._

 _"Not anymore. She is under my care. As are Mal, Jay, and Carlos. And if you move against them I will_ _end_ _you," Regina swore."_

The assembled heroes heard the conversation until Jefferson began to shiver a bit and the picture faded altogether as the mirror returned to normal.

"Hey, what the hell?" Emma insisted.

"That was the limit of the energy you supplied. Your magic is clearly not as refined and directed as the Evil Queen's was Sheriff. If I tried to force it any longer the hat might have been damaged. I have no desire to see another on my creations explode," Jefferson noted dryly.

"Are you saying it was my magic that made the first hat blow up behind us?" Emma demanded.

"As I understood things, her Majesty's wasn't exactly working independently at the time," Jefferson teased back.

"Why you-" Emma began, only to be stopped by her mother.

"Enough, Emma. Don't encourage him," Snow interjected. "For now we need to focus on getting Regina back, and for that we need Jefferson and his hat intact."

"As I said before, that will be quite impossible, your Highness. You'll need a much more refined form of powerful magic and the Dark One hardly considers the Evil Queen an ally these days. And there is no one else left in town even close to having the power to get to her now beyond the Dark One," Jefferson noted happily. He was fine with leaving Regina to play house back in Auradon. She was happy there and seemed to be making quite the little life for herself well away from him. And should Cora become an actual threat, Jefferson was already working out what was needed to get himself and Grace somewhere far away from both the fallout of the the Queen of Hearts' temper and Regina's location.

"That's not something you need to worry about Jefferson. For now, though, we will be keeping this hat with us. Just in case you got it in your head to destroy it or something," Snow informed him with narrowed eyes.

"As if I would destroy one of my own creations. But feel free to keep it. Honestly, it's getting boring watching her help kids with homework and go over accounting seminar materials whenever I look in on her. That little scuffle was the first interesting things she's done in months," Jefferson replied with a shrug.

Emma scoffed a little at his reply but still carefully took the hat from him as she replied, "I'd love to run you in for withholding information on a missing persons case but I really don't want to listen to you all day in the holding cells. So I guess I'll just tell you not to leave town. You know, since you can't, anyway."

"Emma," Snow replied reproachfully.

"We'll be in touch. Make sure you're available," Emma added, ignoring her mother's admonition as she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room with Snow and David trailing behind her.

She had a lot to think about now and being in the presence of an ass like Jefferson did not help in any way. The biggest question was "If Regina is happy and not hurting anyone (other than that weird version of the Evil Queen) should they really bother her about coming back?"

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_ And that is that. Let me know what you think and as always I await your feedback and suggestions.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Auradon: Present Time**_

Regina was still seething hours after she had returned to Auradon proper, although she held it in as she did her best to comfort and reassure a still distraught Evie until the teenager had literally cried herself to sleep in Regina's arms lamenting that she wished Regina was her mother instead of Grimhilde. The former Evil Queen could understand her fears all too well. It was the same terror that Cora had made into Regina's reality with Daniel. Once she was finally asleep, Regina had carefully placed Evie in bed with Mal protectively watching over her sister in all but blood before quietly storming back toward her own chambers in a dark mood.

She had made her way to her faculty apartment and had poured herself her fourth glass of one of the very few bottles of her own apple cider she had brought from home as she heard someone clear their throat behind her. Regina looked back to see the taciturn form of Belle, the Queen Mother herself, standing in her living room. "I suppose I'm to be reprimanded for my behavior in the meeting?" Regina asked without preamble.

Belle looked puzzled for a moment before she understood what Regina was assuming as she shook her head and replied, "Hardly. If anything, I don't think I could have maintained my composure quite as well. Not after what that... woman said to Evie."

"If my magic hadn't been blocked by the barrier, I'm not sure I could have either. I've never wanted to remove a heart more than I did looking at her. It was like... like...," Regina replied in frustration.

"Like?" Belle prodded gently as she moved closer and placed a comforting hand on the former Queen's upper arm.

Regina sighed tiredly as she admitted, "Like I was seeing exactly what my mother tried to make me become. An unfeeling despot that cared for nothing but herself. My time as the Evil Queen was driven by rage and pain but I- she... she just doesn't give a damn. For a second I would have sworn I was looking at my mother wearing my face."

"The fact that bothers you so much that you're here trying to literally drink the image away, no mater how unhealthy that might be, speaks better for you than it ever did for Grimhilde," Belle pointed out.

"And yet it's Evie that's paying the price for her indifference," Regina lamented.

"Evie has something you never got to have, Regina. She has her friends. And Doug. And _you._ She has a family here that can protect her. She won't have to go through what you did," Belle swore.

"Speaking of protection, I would like to request a discreet guard be placed on Doug at all times. I know the security on the Isle is supposed to be impenetrable, but Freddie and CJ getting to Auradon accidentally through the incident with Jordan's lamp proves that no security is airtight," Regina asked.

"I'll see to it personally. Although I don't imagine the Evil Queen will be as eager to try anything now even if she could," Belle replied with the fierce grin of a mother that understood the need to protect her child.

That comment only made Regina feel greater melancholy, though, as she admitted, "I didn't want to act like that. I didn't want to embrace that part of myself. It's... being that person that cost me Henry's trust and love."

"No, Regina. You can't judge yourself through the eyes of a child. Especially one that you yourself made certain never wanted for anything," Belle protested.

"He never said anything about me that wasn't true, Your Highness," Regina noted dryly.

"No, but you were not simply the Evil Queen of your realm by the time you adopted him, either. And I somehow doubt you ever wanted to burden him with the facts of your past that brought you to that point in your life," Belle countered.

"That was debatable. The only noble thing I really did once it all came out was saving Snow and Miss Swan, and even then it was only for his sake. Almost every bit of good I've ever done was for him. I had forgotten what love and happiness even felt like until I held him in my arms for the first time," Regina admitted. "And then I ruined it like I ruin everything. Rumple's broken little tool," she added with a note of disgust.

Belle watched in sympathetic silence as Regina chuckled mirthlessly before taking another drink of her tumbler of cider. "Do you want to know the worst part about all that I did?"

"What's that?" Belle asked.

"I don't regret any of it. Oh, I know it was wrong. I should be drowning in remorse. But I can't. Because every time I try to think about what I would change I realize that if I did change anything I never would have had Henry in my life. And now, I never would have met Evie. And Mal. And the boys. And when I think of that I can't bring myself to regret my actions. What kind of monster can't even feel regret for the evil she brought to her people?" Regina asked.

"One that understands it's better to live in the present than it is to drown in the past," Belle suggested. "Because I don't see a woman that is without remorse. You wouldn't be like this if you were. Instead I see someone that chose to accept her deeds and move forward in her life. Perhaps if others could have done that you wouldn't have been through all that you faced. One thing I differ from many in Auradon on is my view of evil, Regina. Nobody is born bad."

"Evil isn't born, it's made. Odd that we would agree on something like that given our different backgrounds," Regina noted wryly.

"And the fact you actually want to live in peace, that you want love and family, tells me you aren't nearly as evil as you want to believe," Belle continued.

Regina snorted derisively as she commented, "That sounds so different from what Blue would say in your place."

"Blue?" Belle asked in trepidation.

"Reul Ghorm, the Blue Fairy. Leader of the fairies in the Enchanted Forest. She wrote me off as evil the day I was born. Refused to let any fairy come to help me no matter how hard I wished upon a star. The only one that ever came was after I was married, and even she was defying Blue directly. She's always loathed me," Regina explained.

"Well she sounds ridiculously short sighted, then. What made you think of her right now?" Belle asked.

"Because, dear, you could be her twin in appearance. Not in personality, of course. And she would have an aneurysm at the thought of having a child. She went so far as to actively keep apart the fairy that I suppose would have been the closest we had to the Fairy Godmother here in Auradon, Nova, and a dwarf that had fallen in love with her, breaking both of their hearts. But someone from Storybrooke happening upon you would assume you to be Blue rather than the local version of Miss French," Regina pointed out.

"Really?" Belle asked with what seemed almost like an exaggerated amount of shock. "Well she still sounds quite foolish to me, even if she does sound a bit attractive."

That comment got a sideways glance and the inkling of a snicker from Regina.

There was another pause on the conversation before Belle said, "I wanted to let you know the paperwork for Evie's custody has been filed. Legally speaking, Grimhilde can never touch her again. And you are the official guardian for Mal and the boys as well. That's what brought me here originally this evening."

"Good, that will take a load off of her mind. At least I hope it will," Regina noted with a small smile.

"We haven't known each other long, Regina, but I do know that you are a good and loving mother. Evie could not have anyone better looking out for her," Belle confided.

Regina snorted in a rather unladylike manner as she dryly pointed out, "Well considering what she had before I don't think she could have done much _worse._ "

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke: Present time**_

"Auradon, I can't say that's a realm I'm very familiar with," Rumple noted in interest. It was true, he was familiar with far more realms and lands than anyone else in Storybrooke, Cora and Blue included, but this was the first he had every heard of this land. "And you're certain Regina is there?"

Emma nodded firmly from where she stood next to her mother, still a little uncomfortable even telling Gold of what they had learned, but she reasoned Neal would have told him anyway, and she at least owed Neal enough to let him know his recently discovered little sister wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere. David had remained home to watch Henry while Ruby covered the night shift for the station. "Jefferson showed her to us with his hat and a mirror she apparently used to check in on this place before he sent her there."

" _Did_ he?" Rumple mused with a bit of a sneer. He would have to have a conversation with the Hatter sometime soon to remind him of who's town this really was and why it would be better to consult the real powers there before using his magic so freely to interfere in things beyond him. Especially with Regina no longer residing there.

"Was she alright?" Neal asked, breaking the imp from his darker thoughts. "Did she seem happy?"

Emma looked a little uncomfortable as she admitted, "I wouldn't say she was happy in that exact moment. She was apparently in an argument with the local version of the Evil Queen about the her older, fatter, version threatening her daughter and Regina not appreciating it. But from what Jefferson finally told us and what Henry learned when Paige showed him where she was last week she seems pretty okay. She's teaching at some fancy school for the kids of Disney Princes and Princesses, if you can believe that."

"Daughter?" Rumple asked in interest at that part of the account. That Regina would try to be near children didn't overly surprise him. Even in the Enchanted Forest at the height of her evil she had tried to convince Hansel and Gretel to allow her to adopt them. And reacted rather poorly when they had refused her. His little girl never did handle rejection very well.

"Yeah, a girl named Evie. Looks like a seventeen year old Regina with dark blue hair with some black streaks. She was really freaked out over what the other Evil Queen had threatened her with," Emma responded. "Why do you ask?"

"Because, my daugh- that is to say Regina is incapable of having children of her own. I helped her brew the potion that rendered her infertile myself. She... did not want to risk any child of hers falling in to Cora's hands. I could not say I blamed her," Rumple admitted.

Emma looked more than a little disturbed by that revelation as Snow gasped beside her and muttered, "I never knew that."

The mood of the entire group assembled in the back room of Gold's Pawn Shop was somber and tense at that revelation for a few moments before Belle finally broke the silence and chimed in "You said there was already an Evil Queen in this Auradon place?"

That snapped Emma out of her own inner thoughts as she replied, "Yeah. Apparently this Auradon is a world of like the literal Disney versions of everyone's stories, only twenty years later. And they somehow brought back any villains that were dead and all put them together on a prison island with no magic. But they have modern tech and stuff. Truth be told it looked a lot better to me than the Enchanted Forest."

"Emma!" Snow exclaimed, scandalized at the notion.

"No offense Mom, but between you and me, I kind of missed running water, indoor plumbing, and a lack of ogres when we took our little visit to the Old Country after the curse was broken. Even the villains had a TV and a fridge in the room where Regina was choking that messed up version of her. And that was a supposed to be a prison. I'd call that a major improvement," Emma countered.

"I didn't notice any of that when we saw them," Snow replied with a puzzled expression.

Emma shrugged as she responded, "Former bail bondsperson. I'm used to looking for details of my surroundings quickly. And I know the kid will grill me over every little detail later so I made sure to pay attention to everything I could. The fridge and TV in the prison island looked like they were from the fifties while the one I spotted in the girl's dorm looked like a top of the line flat screen, but they both had them."

"As fascinating as talking about what people have to waste their time in this realm is, can we get back to discussing my daughter?" Rumple interjected testily. "You said she was choking her counterpart, Miss Swan?"

That brought Emma's attention back to the imp as she nodded and replied, "Yeah. They looked like they were in some kind of meeting when the other Evil Queen, I think Jefferson said her name was Grimhilde-"

"Grimhilde, that's the name of the Evil Queen in the Disney version of the story," Belle noted as a point of intellectual curiosity.

"Regina must have been glad not to be saddled with that one growing up. Although I suppose it's no worse than _Baelfire_ ," Neal pointed out with a smile.

"Baelfire was a fine name for a boy when you were young, I'll have you know," Rumple pointed out affronted.

"I know, Papa, but it didn't exactly blend in well here, is all. Besides this will make it easier since we don't have to think of both Evil Queens as Regina, right?" Neal replied as he held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Point taken, son." Rumple conceded. "Now if we could get back to the actual confrontation?"

"Right," Emma agreed. "Anyway, Grimhilde decided to try to step up on Regina and intimidate her physically since she has probably at least fifty pounds on her, but Regina was having none of it. She just grabbed her by the throat with one hand like she was planning to choke-slam her or something before telling her that if she ever threatened any of the kids again Regina would have her begging to die before she finished her. She was in like full on Madam Mayor mode combined with being royally pissed off. It was actually kind of badass."

"Really, Emma?" Snow asked in exasperation.

"What? You can't tell me you weren't rooting for Regina right then. Especially when you found out she was protecting a kid she was taking care of," Emma defended.

"I suppose not. That doesn't mean I wanted to see Regina in any kind of confrontation," Snow replied primly.

"Yes, I suppose that would bring back some uncomfortable memories for you, wouldn't it dearie? Since you were usually the one on that end of Regina's ire in years past," Rumple taunted with a dark smile.

Snow scowled at Gold as she valiantly refrained from commenting and folded her arms as she looked away from him.

"Anyway, we wanted to keep you informed so we could see what you guys could find about this Auradon place. Jefferson was pretty sure that you might be the only one that could even get the hat to work with Maleficent gone," Emma reported.

"He would be mostly right. But without an experienced portal jumper getting back here would be problematic at best, short of having access to something like a magic bean," Rumple pointed out. "Still this gives us somewhere to focus more of our efforts. Although I would caution you to refrain from discussing them anywhere but here, your home, or the Sheriff's station. I've personally warded all three places from Cora's ability to scry them and I would prefer she not have any idea of what we have learned."

"Yeah, I think we can all agree that would be a bad thing," Emma agreed with a sour expression.

* * *

Speaking of Cora, she was growing ever more restless the longer she was in Storybrooke. Every effort she had made thus far to find her daughter had been fruitless, and on top of that she had tipped her hand and revealed to Rumple that Regina was his daughter as well. That was a miscalculation on her part that would haunt her for a long time.

At the moment she was looking out in disgust at the little kingdom Regina had created for herself in this realm from the deck of Hook's ship where she kept it invisible with her magic. She had sent Hook himself out for another scouting mission beyond the borders of the town to see if he could find any information on her daughter, although Cora did not have high hopes for his success. And if he failed this time she would have to seriously consider what her next move would be.

Her first thought was to kill Snow and the Savior and bring Regina's son, ill-mannered though he may be, with her as she continued her search from the comforts of Wonderland but she didn't really see the point. Until she knew where to find her daughter that honestly seemed like more effort than it was worth and the last thing she wanted to do was contend with the boy's whining until Regina was found.

At this point the whole journey seemed to be something of a waste to her. Rumple was not only aware of her presence but fully on his guard so the chances of Hook getting close enough to poison him and steal the dagger so Cora could make herself the new Dark One seemed unlikely. One did not attack the Dark One lightly under the best of circumstances, and her inability to find Regina made the current circumstances for Cora less than ideal. Besides, it wasn't like Cora could not bide her time to try again later. What was time to someone with the kind of power the Queen of Hearts already commanded? She had not aged a day since Regina had cast her curse despite shielding herself from it affects.

Of course postponing her plans for Rumple would upset Hook and likely lead him to attack his "crocodile" on his own, but it hardly mattered to her if the dear captain valued his life so little after plotting his revenge for centuries. She was quite certain that Rumple would be in no mood to play after learning of Regina's origins and would dispatch Hook quickly rather than risk him becoming a threat to his children... or that little servant girl of his. Cora let loose a sneer at the thought of Belle. She thought Rumple had more refined taste than to pick up some little piece of fluff like that. But she supposed she was equally young and attractive when he had pursued her. And really the only thing that mattered now was that Hook would likely find himself joining his lamented Milah in death soon so Cora would have his ship to help her traverse realms without dealing with the stench of rum and desperation around her.

Of course having access to the ship begged the question of where to go? She highly doubted Regina has returned to the Enchanted Forest and the few dregs Cora had protected from the Dark Curse that still resided there. She supposed the best place to start would be Wonderland where at least she could build a better seat of power securely while continuing her search. And she would likely need to recruit some allies. But who? Not Jafar. The man was far too intelligent and ruthless to be trusted. Nor did she think she could recruit the rather broken Savior of Agrabah, Aladdin. No, the more she thought about it the more she realized this was too personal to look for just any allies. She did not need someone like Hook that would desert her for his own purposes once they no longer aligned with her own goals. Ideally, what she needed was family. But Henry Sr. had literally given Regina his heart for her to cast her curse and the only other family she had was...no. She couldn't. But where else could she turn now? And really, with Leopold and Eva dead and most of the royals of the Enchanted forest trapped here in Regina's town did it really matter if she hid her any longer? Perhaps it was time to show all the realms what the full might of all three Mills women could accomplish.

* * *

 _ **Auradon: the next morning**_

"So, you're legally in charge of us now?" Evie asked with a note of hope in her voice as she looked at Regina. The former Queen had come that morning before classes to inform the "original four" VK kids of what Belle had told her last night.

"That's right, dear. None of your parents have any direct authority over you that you do not give them. Not any longer," Regina assured her with a sad smile.

Carlos' expression was almost as hopeful as Evie's as he excitedly asked, "So we never have to go back there again? Or... see them if we don't want to?"

"No, Carlos. They can never hurt you directly again. And I promise I won't have you brushing any furs and I don't have any bunions for your to massage. After all, I'm a Queen and a bit more refined," Regina noted with a tone of playful arrogance even as her face broke into a wide smile that was mirrored by the others as they rushed forward en masse to hug her.

"You're the best, Auntie Gina. I don't have to be afraid of mom ever making Dude into mittens ever again!" Carlos whooped as he released her along with Mal and Jay, although Evie still clung to Regina as she tried to fight back tears.

"What about Freddie and CJ? I mean I know you're like their councilor here now but their parents weren't really that bad. Well other than Hook's crew teaching CJ all those stupid nautical puns. That was pure evil," Mal pointed out.

"Miss Facilier and Miss Hook are both still legally in the care of their respective parents. Although I will still act in loco parentis for them here at Auradon prep. And we are discussing whether to have miss Hook's older siblings included to join her or not in the next group coming for the new term next year. There have been some concerns voiced given both her little 'plundering spree' and her taking Ben captive the night of the Spirit Week dance even if we did establish that she meant no real harm," Regina informed them.

"Well Harriet can usually keep CJ in line when she gets it in her head she's some kind of captain, if nothing else. And Harry's not all that bad. Besides at the end of the day CJ is just a big ham. I think she was mostly playing things up as long as she could because she was sure we would send her back anyway. And so she'd have stories to tell her dad's crew. Mr Smee loves to hear anyone tell him a story. He's like a big kid himself," Mal reasoned, feeling responsible for the all of the Villain Kids in Auradon.

"Yeah, she caved the second you found her after she took off with Jordan's flying carpet," Jay noted with a smirk. CJ had fancied herself leading them all back to villainy under her banner for all of three seconds until Regina's "mom glare" had set her straight. The blonde hardly wanted to leave Freddie's side now for fear of upsetting Regina.

"I tend to agree, Mal. Jay. But it's not entirely up to me, or even mostly up to me. We'll just have to wait and see what the ruling council and the Board of Governors say. Some of them are complaining it's unfair to others on the Isle to bring all of Hook's children here at once," Regina replied.

"As if they cared what was fair to us until Ben and I got together," Mal scoffed angrily.

"Yes, well I learned long ago not to expect too much from overly pampered royals. The fact Ben cares and is helping you counts for more than the rest of their opinions combined," Regina commented. "But for now, you four need breakfast before you get to your classes. And I have a seminar to prepare for this afternoon, although I'll be in my office until then if any of you need me."

Mal, Carlos, and Jay took that as their cue to leave, although Mal gave a somewhat encouraging glance to Evie, who still looked reluctant to leave Regina's side, before they exited silently. The pair remained in the room for a moment in silence before Regina gently, prodded, "Is there anything else you need, Evie?"

"No, Regina. I.. I just wanted to thank you for doing all you have for us. You've... really helped, you know? With standing up to my mother, and making yourself our guardian to protect us, and helping us study and everything. So thanks," Evie said in a tone barely above a whisper.

"I was happy to help you all, Evie. As selfish as this might sound, I've come to think of the four of you as if you were my own children. I wasn't about to let Grimhilde say things like that to you or about you," Regina replied with a warm smile.

"Regina?" Evie asked hesitantly.

"Yes, dear?" Regina replied.

"Would it be okay if... sometimes, I called you... Mom? I mean I would totally understand if you said no, or if it made you too sad thinking about Henry or something. It's just, that's kind of how I've come to see you," Evie shyly requested.

Tears began to well up in Regina's eyes as she found herself suddenly unable to form words in the face of the emotions she was feeling.

Unfortunately, Evie misinterpreted her reaction and started to babble, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Please don't cry Miss Mills. I didn't mean to make you upset. I know we could never replace Henry. Just forget I said any-"

The bluenette was cut short as Regina darted forward and crushed her with a hug while letting out a tearful chuckle. "There is nothing I would like more, dear. Put that thought out of your head right this instant. You can call me 'mom' whenever you want. I promise," Regina informed her emotionally.

Regina's happy tears were joined with Evie's as the two hugged for a few moments before the teen stepped back and whispered, "Thank you."

"Just one thing dear. I'm 'Mom.' Maybe even 'mother' if I've upset you. But I will never be 'Mommy,' alright?" Regina asked.

Evie understood the request, that Regina neither wanted to replace nor be associated with Grimhilde in her care of Evie and the others, and smiled as she hugged the older woman again quickly before muttering a quick, "Deal." She quickly moved to her vanity table as she added, "Now I just have to fix my make-up before joining the others. Red splotches and running mascara are not the image I wanted to project. Too bad I'll have to skip breakfast."

"You'll do no such thing, young lady. Breakfast is not something you should be skipping at your age. I'll take care of your make-up. Just thins once," Regina reprimanded with a twinkle in her eye as she made a grand gesture with her right hand, using her magic to fix Evie's appearance.

Evie looked at her perfect hair and make-up for a moment before smiling widely as she rushed to hug Regina a final time. "Thank you so much, Mom."

Regina had a smile that threatened to split her face in two as she nodded in approval before she ordered, "Now hurry up and catch up to your friends. I don't want to hear about you missing any meals, young lady. A proper diet is important to being able to concentrate in class."

Evie's smile matched Regina's as she gave an enthusiastic "Yes ma'am," before rushing to get her bookbag and catch up to the others.

As she watched Evie go, Regina could not help but marvel at the feeling of happiness in her chest. For a moment it almost felt as if her blackened heart had become just a little lighter. She could only hope she would continue to feel that kind of happiness here in Auradon.

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_ Yeah, I got a little fluffy there at the end. Don't worry, I won't let it happen too often. Anyway, I'm glad I found time in my schedule to get this one written. Please let me know what you all think and as always I look forward to your comments and suggestions.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Auradon**_

"Well, this was certainly a mess," Regina concluded as she looked over the necklace the Villain Kids had brought her that was cursed to make Mal act out in villainous ways. Although in Regina's mind making people dance, covering them in colored bubbles, and saying a few spiteful things was hardly what she would consider hard-core evil. Probably the worst thing she had done was trapping Jane in Jordan's lamp for a time and that was a juvenile prank at best. Although the immediate impact the green gem had on Mal when exposed from the locket within was undeniable. Particularly the bright green glow it forced from Mal's eyes that was reminiscent of her battles of will with her mother.

"We already explained to Audrey and the others what happened with it. Between Audrey, Ally, and Lonnie the grapevine will be spreading about the locket and what it did before people even know Mal was acting strange," Evie reported as Mal sat miserably in the "hot seat chair" in front of the desk in Regina's office with her head in her hands.

"I swear I don't even remember anything from when it was active. And I believe Freddie and CJ when they said they don't know either," Mal lamented.

"As do I. Miss Hook seems less than inclined to cross me after the incident with the flying carpet. And I'll be able to further quell any rumors and repair the damage by explaining everything now that I finally conceded to that twit Snow's interview special later this evening. One benefit of it being broadcast live is that I'll have an open forum to clear you before people get the wrong idea." Regina purred.

"Regina, be nice," the Fairy Godmother said reproachfully as she took the locket and examined it from where she stood next to Regina's seat at her desk. They were both investigating the locket and what it could mean at Ben's insistence, with the full support of Belle and King Adam behind him. None of the royal family were pleased with what they saw as a direct attack on Mal and her reputation both.

"Do you think my mother might have cursed it?" Mal asked with a note of worry in her voice.

"I doubt it, dear," Regina replied after a moment of consideration. "And honestly that worries me all the more."

"What do you mean, Mom?" Evie asked, earning half-hearted smiles from Mal, Jay, and Carlos that the so called "broken princess" was getting comfortable enough to call Regina that without thinking.

"Well, the timing is all wrong, for one," Regina replied as she looked down at her desk in contemplation.

"How do you figure?" the Fairy Godmother asked, eager to hear the former Evil Queen's take on the situation.

"Well the stone is clearly cursed to affect Mal specifically. But I can't see your Maleficent being the type to ever consider getting into a relationship, much less having a child, before her death, resurrection, and capture. So there was no way she would waste the time and energy to enchant anything to affect future descendants of hers to make them act more evil before she was ever imprisoned on the Isle. Nor would she believe anyone connected to her would choose a path different from her own. She was far too arrogant for that. And for the brief time she had access to her powers again after she was released she was certain Mal was still her willing accomplice until she appeared at the Coronation and was defeated. There was no time to enchant it then. And she was fairly certain Mal would still bend to her will eventually right up until her power backfired on her. Don't forget that I was watching the whole thing with Jefferson's hat. She was certain of her impending victory," Regina explained. "No this had to be enchanted by someone targeting Mal as the hero she is now. Someone well away from the Isle that had access to magic, as well. Whoever we're looking for it here in Auradon, at least part of the time," she insisted.

"But why would someone want me to start acting evil again?" Mal asked, equal parts angry and worried at the notion of an unseen enemy.

"Well part of it was to humiliate you and sow distrust with the general population, I'm sure. Although I can't believe anyone this skilled in spellcraft would be stupid enough to think that could be a long term goal. Your friends started noticing the difference in a matter of days and the Headmistress and I are both more than powerful enough to counteract the effects of the gem and render it harmless. One of us would have picked up on it the first time it activated in our presence. I'm honestly surprised Jordan didn't notice it immediately. The effects are rather ham-handed no matter how much skill was used to actually craft the curse itself," Regina explained. "Even if it was beyond us, and it isn't, Ben could have rescued you all on his own with True Love's Kiss. It was doomed from the start and anyone that knows anything about you would know it."

"Then what was the real goal?" Evie asked as she started to look at the incident with fresh eyes even as Mal's cheeks dusted at the thought of Ben delivering True Love's Kiss to save her.

"Distraction, most likely," Regina replied with a scowl.

"Distraction from what?" Carlos asked with a worried expression.

Regina glanced at Jay for a moment before sharing a long look with the Fairy Godmother for several seconds. The two seemed to be in silent communication for a while before the latter nodded and Regina reached into her desk and took out a file to show the four kids the recent report within.

The four read the official incident report from Auradon's museum quickly before Jay looked up in worry and asked, "Someone stole my Dad's scepter last night? The one he used to use to hypnotize the Sultan?"

"Indeed. I wanted to investigate things a little deeper before we involved you kids with it. Especially since the theft had to involve magic and the feel of it, for lack of a better term, was unfamiliar. Although you can rest assured that Jafar and the other villains are still safely imprisoned on the Isle. That hasn't changed," Regina replied in a sympathetic tone.

"So someone messed with my head and tried to turn the whole school against me just to get the scepter? What does that even mean?" Mal demanded, affronted at the notion of being used as a patsy.

Regina's expression grew grim as she folded her arms and said, "That Auradon has a new villain. Or at least a spellcaster aspiring to become one. Whether they are connected to anyone on the Isle or not I can't say for now, but there is definitely an unknown threat lurking around."

"I had so hoped we had put such things behind us," the Fairy Godmother noted sadly.

"I'm shocked you managed over two decades of relative peace. Although I think you can chalk that up to equal parts the effort of Adam and Belle to provide for their subjects and fear of being sent to the Isle on behalf of those looking for an easier path in life. The thought of being locked up with the likes of Maleficent, Jafar, and my... lesser self would scare many wannabe villains and henchmen with delusions of grandeur senseless. Or at least it would with the ones old enough to remember them. Unfortunately you've had time for a whole new generation to grow up without understanding just how things used to be," Regina theorized.

"You think it's a kid doing this?" Evie asked in shock.

"Not a child, but I could easily see a young adult being at the heart of it. Don't forget that Maleficent was already causing trouble and terrorizing kingdoms when she was your ages. Heck, I was being arranged into the marriage that led me to become the Evil Queen by my mother when I was no older than Evie. The right mind with the right opportunity and a relative lack of more dangerous competition... yes that could be a very fertile landscape to breed trouble. Especially when even _good_ magic is used mostly in the background as little more than a fuel source to power Auradon. It leaves the impression that the land is less defended and ripe for the taking," Regina noted

"I just hope we can find whoever is looking to cause that trouble before things escalate too far," the Fairy Godmother noted with a worried glance.

"As do I," Regina agreed with a frown.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

As Regina contemplated the threat of darkness returning to Auradon, Emma was contemplating Jefferson's hat that was used to reach Auradon. She knew that sooner or later they would end up going there to try to bring back Regina. The way M&M and Henry were talking the last few days that seemed like more and more of a given. She supposed Neal deserved to get to know his little sister (and how messed up was her life that her step-grandmother was also her ex's baby sister? It was the kind of painful thought that resided in her head next to the notion that her parents were both technically at least a year younger than her now.) And Henry was getting more and more behind the idea of finding his adopted mother every day. Emma fully expected him to start calling the whole ordeal "Operation: Welcome Home" or something like that any time now.

Honestly, Emma was more than a little bothered by the whole situation. There were just too many unknowns involved. And her life hunting down bounties as a former bail bonds-person told her that not knowing the situation could get you hurt, or worse. And she really didn't want to rely on Gold to be their only source of information connected to Auradon. She had ample reason to not trust the man, Henry's other grandfather or not.

No, what she'd really like would be to see this new world Jefferson sent Regina to for more than a few seconds. To see Regina's life outside of getting into an argument with her local self. She needed to know the lay of the land. She wanted to know about Regina's routine, her job, her friends (if she had any), and these kids she was apparently raising there that had Henry so jealous. Part of it was her training in the bail bonds field. It was always better to know the situation your target was in before you came in and disrupted things. And another part was honest curiosity about Regina's life there. Was she happy? Had she made a good life for herself there the way she had tried and failed to do with Storybrooke? Was getting away from Snow, and Mother Surperior, and if she was being honest with herself _Emma_ herself enough to let the woman everyone around her (except Neal) called the Evil Queen find peace? And if she did, was it right for Emma to try and help rob her of that peace?

After all, the insistence of David and people like Leroy aside, it wasn't like there were laws against cursing everyone to live in 21st century Maine. At least, not here in America. And as much as some of the townsfolk might disagree, Emma wasn't exactly looking to submit everything around them to Enchanted Forest law. Especially when that had already led to half the town trying to kill Regina in a lynch mob the moment the curse was broken. A dark part of Emma wondered how the same people that were now insisting Regina needed to help stop Cora would have handled things if they had managed to kill her that day and they would have been facing an enraged Queen of Hearts with nothing left to lose? Then she remembers that her own parents, and possibly Henry too, would have been Cora's first targets and she tries to bury those spiteful thoughts.

Still, the lack of information was gnawing at her. If only she could figure out how to make the damned hat show her Auradon again. Jefferson has told them outright that Regina had used it to watch the realm for at least a week without him there to hold her hand. Why couldn't Emma manage to do the same? Although a snarky part of her mind that sounded suspiciously like a certain missing former Mayor reminded her that the one that would likely be best able to teach her about how to use the magic in her veins was _in_ Auradon at the moment.

Of course, not knowing what she was really doing had never really stopped Emma for long before. And with that in mind she scrunched up her face in determination as she took the hat in one hand and reached out to touch her dresser mirror in the other while trying to concentrate on seeing Regina.

She stood there for at least a minute, certain all she had managed to do was look constipated, before a voice piped up behind her, "What are you trying to do, Ma?"

"Henry!" Emma exclaimed with a start as she moved away from the mirror as if burned. She stood there with wide eyes as she tried to think of how to explain her actions to her usually decidedly anti-magic child.

"What are you doing with the Hat to where Mom is?" Henry asked looking at the offending object in curiosity where it was still clutched by the brim in Emma's left hand.

A dozen different excuses went through the Sheriff's mind, each more more outlandish and stupid sounding to her than the last, before she finally crumpled in on herself and admitted, "I was trying to figure out how to use the hat to look in on Regina."

"Oh," Henry exclaimed, as his mood grew decidedly more depressed and solemn before his birth mother's eyes for a moment. That depression was quickly replaced with confusion as he asked, "What does that have to do with your mirror?"

"Huh?" Emma asked. "Um, that's how Jefferson showed us where you mom is, Kid. And he said that's how Regina used it to look in on the place for the week before he sent her there. Isn't that how Paige showed your mom to you?"

"No~" Henry replied with a long drawn out "o."

Now it was Emma's turn to appear bewildered as she asked, "Then how the heck did she show you the place?"

"She used the TV. She said it was way easier because a TV was already meant to have pictures and sound. Paige said that's why she was able to let me watch even though I didn't have magic," Henry explained.

"Well I'll be damned," Emma uttered to herself. She never would have thought of relying on the TV like that to so something with magic. And she was pretty sure Jefferson and Regina wouldn't have either. Both had been raised in the medieval world of the Enchanted Forest and both had the power and training to use either a mirror or the hat itself to see what they wanted to see. Leave it to the new generation to figure out an easier way to do things that the older would never consider. She stood there in stunned silence for a moment fore she asked, "I don't suppose you could call Paige over here to help us look in on her, could you?"

"I guess. It would have to be after dinner, though. Her, uh, foster parents are really strict about her finishing her homework first before she goes out anywhere. She probably couldn't be here until around 7:00 since we had a lot. She was complaining how it would take her until dinnertime to finish as we left school today," Henry explained.

"That would work. And I guess we could get your grandparents here to watch too. I know Snow is kind of freaking out that we can't get to Regina," Emma agreed.

"Cool. I'll go give her a call," Henry replied with a shrug as he left the loft bedroom to head toward the kitchen and call his classmate.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"Okay, Lady Regina, we'll start with a short discussion about the attack on Princess Mal and then we can get into the real meat of the interview," Snow's producer said as he was going over the details of the planned television interview with the former Evil Queen of the Enchanted Forest. "Is there anything in particular we should know?"

"The first thing is that you can drop the formal titles," Regina informed him.

"Excuse me?" the man asked, shocked and scandalized at the very notion. "But you are a former Queen in good standing with the Royal Council. And Princess Mal is likely to become Queen herself one day when she weds King Ben!"

"Perhaps. But the title of 'princess' makes Mal think of her time growing up being referred to as 'Princess of the Isle' which was often meant as an insult to imply she could not take care of herself without Maleficent's help. Although I imagine many of the rank and file inhabitants of the Isle of the Lost put more weight into the title than Mal ever believed. Either way, it makes her uncomfortable and referring to her that way publicly would only agitate and embarrass her," Regina informed him.

"Fair enough, but you are still a noblewoman of high standing and former royal from your land. Certainly we need to pay you the proper respect," the producer insisted.

"I never desired to be queen. And my grandfather, King Xavier, lost his kingdom to Midas when I was a very small child. Either way, I've never held any kind of land and title here in Auradon. If anyone should be given such honorifics, it's Evie, and she's been told multiple times that her lineage through Grimhilde means nothing to the people. If you must refer to me formally, then 'Miss Mills' is all the formality required. Respect, after all, is earned, not given," Regina insisted.

The producer bit his tongue to keep from pointing out that the only ones that would likely deny Princess Evie's own royal pedigree were other princess and young nobles at Auradon Prep, or that doing so was more of a 'mean girls' style of hazing than anything. While no longer considered to be formally in the line of succession for Snow White's throne, Princess Evie, like Lady Regina, was still royal by birth. And the rank and file citizens of Auradon had a deep respect and admiration for royalty in general, even those without a formal throne any longer. They were, after all, a confederation of monarchies under king Ben's ultimate authority.

"Just have Snow refer to me by name, or Miss Mills whenever possible to help distance me from Grimhilde. Goodness knows I never cared for my titles anyway. It will make things less murky for everyone," Regina instructed him.

Everything around them was a bustle of constant activity as they prepared what had once been a royal sitting room at Auradon Prep, back when it had been an actual castle instead of being converted into a school, into the set for Regina's live interview at 7:00pm that evening. A few of the executive producers had wanted to conduct the interview in Regina's actual quarters, but she drew the line at letting a bunch of nosy strangers into what had become her home. It was bad enough she would likely spend at least an hour biting back equal parts of vitriol and bile looking at a doppelganger of Mary Margaret that kept giving her the most pathetic of hopeful and wounded expressions each time they encountered one another. It was only the stylized version of her Disney dress colors and longer hair that helped to remind Regina that this was not the clingy brat that had ruined her life and that she could endure her presence for a time if it helped Mal and the other kids.

Her musings were cut short as the director and the assistant in charge of lighting came of to make sure Regina would be seated in the optimal position. Queen Belle (it was still hard for many to refer to her as just the Queen Mother when she and her husband still helped Ben with day to day ruling matters as he finished school) had insisted that everything be perfect for this interview.

Belle was well aware that almost every television from Auradon proper to the handful of them on the Isle of the Lost (mostly in Maleficent's former castle, Master Yen Sid's quarters at Dragon Hall, Dr. Facilier's quarters, and wherever Ursula was holed up at the time) would be tuned in to see this interview. It was crucial, she knew, that Regina be presented in a honest and sympathetic light to help win the trust of the people. After all, Regina was fast becoming vital to Ben's plans to help integrate the younger generation from the Isle into Auradonian society. She was the perfect bridge for the kids between hero and villain society that they could confide in.

* * *

 _ **Storybooke**_

David watched as Emma paced nervously, Neal glanced at the apartment door every three seconds or so from where he was seated on the couch near Emma's pacing spot, Snow fidgeted as she tried to make heads of tails of some of the paperwork for the town from the kitchen table and, embarrassingly enough for the Fairest of Them All, Henry tried to help his grandmother since he had quite literally grown up on Regina's lap as she ran all of Storybrooke. Curse or no, David had no idea how that woman could have run this place while raising Henry on her own. Not that he would every give her the satisfaction of telling her that if he ever saw her again in person.

Probably the only one that looked remotely calm among the assembled group as they waited for Paige to arrive was Ruby, who Snow had invited over both for moral support and so that everyone's favorite waitress in town would be able to accurately disseminate information when people inevitably came to her to learn what was going on. The werewolf in question was entertaining herself asking questions that alternately either wound up or calmed down Emma and Neal both. David figured she was doing her best to make up on the 28 years of teasing her goddaughter that she had missed out on because of the Curse.

The growing tension in the room finally broke just after seven when Paige finally arrived, slightly out of breath. "Hello Your Majesties. Sorry I'm late. There was just so much homework and Mom insisted I have dinner first before I came to help," the girl explained in a rush after Henry let her in.

"Don't sweat it kid. We're just glad you could come to help. Things have been getting a little crazy around here with people not knowing what happened to Regina," Emma replied. "And please drop the 'Majesty' stuff too. 'Princess-ey' isn't exactly how I would describe myself."

"Ain't that the truth," Neal muttered with a note of humor that earned him a playful backhand on the shoulder from the resident Savior.

"We'd like to thank you again for taking the time to do this, Paige," Snow said, taking charge of things unconsciously.

"Oh, it was my pleasure, Ms. Blanchard. I mean, Your Highne- I mean Queen Snow," Paige stuttered with an approximation of a courtly curtsy.

Snow smiled at the girls attempts to be extremely polite and proper, even as she demurred, "Ms. Blanchard is fine, Paige. It's how you've known me in class for a very long time."

At that the daughter of the Mad Hatter smiled a little more confidently and nodded in thanks to the older woman.

"Okay, so how do you want to do this, Kiddo? I mean, your dad had me provide extra magic to power everything in the mirror, but the way Henry explained it you managed to do the same yourself without me. How do you want to play things?" Emma asked, eager to get started.

"Oh, um, you providing extra magic would be a great help, Sheriff Swan. I can manage a few seconds without it, but with your help we should be able to watch for a while. And, I suppose, I could probably set things up so you could check on Mayor Mills, uh I mean the Queen, again on your own whenever you like. The only hard part with using a TV is keeping it powered. Using a mirror is much harder because you have to enchant it to show the pictures and add extra energy to power the Hat. It's like the double the work. That's why Poppa usually just look at realms with the Hat directly. It's much easier for us to see things that way than it is to show anyone else." Paige explained.

"You never call her evil," Henry muttered mostly to himself.

"What?" Paige asked as she cocked her head to the side in askance, reminding those watching her almost of a bird.

"My mom...aunt...um Regina. You never call her the Evil Queen. Just the Queen. Why?" Henry asked.

"Henry, that's kind of rude to ask someone something like that," David warned.

"No, Mr Nolan, it's fine," Paige insisted before Henry could reply to his grandfather's admonishment. "I don't call the Queen evil because she's not evil to me, Henry. She never was," she added.

"What do you mean?" Henry asked, still wrestling with his own questions about his feelings about his adoptive mother.

"It was something Poppa explained to me. The Queen of Hearts forced Regina to be a Queen. That's what she is, what she'll always be. But it was other people that started calling her evil. And if you tell someone something long enough, they start to believe it," Paige replied.

"But you said she was never evil to you; she took you from your father. Made you forget who you were," Henry insisted.

Paige looked saddened for a moment before she agreed, "She did. And I love Poppa. But I love my new mom and dad too. And they're... kind of better at taking care of a little girl than Poppa was. He tried, and things were different in the forest, of course, but he's... very forgetful. And sometimes a thought will take him and he'll forget to even feed himself for over a week. I... like having a family that makes sure I do my homework every night, and that remembers to make dinner, and that doesn't disappear to another realm for days or weeks at a time. And I like living in a place where everyone has their own house that's warm, and we can all go to school, and you don't have to hunt to find your food most of the time."

" I never thought of it that way," Henry murmured in deep thought.

"I hate to say it kid, and things were probably easier for your grandma and Regina both being royalty, but life in the Enchanted Forest was pretty hard from what I saw," Emma agreed.

"Very" Ruby and Neal both agreed. Both had been well versed in the life of a peasant before coming to the Land Without Magic, after all.

"Besides," Paige added uncomfortably, "Poppa told me once that he and Dr. Whale helped to put the evil in her name. He was kind of rambling like he does from time to time, but he seemed sad when he said that."

Emma bit her tongue at that admission. She well remembered just how manic Jefferson could be when he got going, not to mention what David had told them about Whale stealing the body of and trying to resurrect Regina's long dead first love. To be perfectly honest it was the kind of horror story brought to life that Emma was glad she had missed. And she seriously wanted to ask where Whale got off trying to lead a lynch mob against anyone after what he had pulled? The guy was freaking Dr Frankenstein. She was honestly impressed Regina didn't finish what Franken-Daniel had started by ripping the jerk's arm out. It just showed how far the Queen was willing to go for Henry. And now she was gone, thanks to Jefferson.

"Anyway, what do I have to do to help, Paige?" Emma asked, to break the mood in the room up a little.

"Oh, I'll set the Hat on the TV and set it to channel 3 so it will be static and there won't be a signal to interfere, then I'll make the connection. Can you put one hand on the brim of the hat and think of channeling power like filling up a cell phone battery?" Paige instructed.

"You got it, kiddo. Let's get this show on the road," Emma replied with a nervous smile.

"Okay, here we go..." Paige relied as she took a deep breath and concentrated on making a connection between her father's hat and the television.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"And commercial. We have three minutes before we start the next segment, Snow, Ms Mills," the director informed Snow and Regina.

"That was perfect, Miss Regina. Everyone will understand the awful attack on Mal now and be on the look out for whoever enchanted her. I still can't believe someone would target a child like that," Snow commented as she took a drink of water while her crew touched up her hair a bit. "And I want to thank you again for taking the time to talk to me. I know it couldn't be easy."

"I would say the same for you, dear," Regina commented neutrally.

"Somewhat. I'll admit it's a little strange for me, You look so much like dear Stepmama but you're just so... young. We could almost be sisters," Snow exclaimed.

 _Too bad my Snow never thought that way,_ Regina grumbled in her head.

"Two minutes, ladies," the director warned them as the makeup crew started to retreat.

"Now, Miss Regina, I want you to be as candid as you feel comfortable with for this part of the interview. This part is all about you and getting your story out to the people. I know from the council reports that several subjects could be... touchy for you. If things are going too far at any point please let us know and we'll go to a commercial immediately. Then we can decide to keep going or cut it off there at your discretion," Snow instructed as they prepared for the real meat of the interview.

"I'll keep it in mind dear. Don't worry, though, I'm made of fairly stern stuff," Regina responded confidently.

"I don't doubt it. Just try to act natural and you'll do wonderfully," Snow replied with a beaming smile.

"Thirty seconds..." the director cut in.

The pair sat in moderately comfortable silence as the director called out, "Five... four... three..." before relying on hand signals for two and one...

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"We've got a connection," Mary Margaret noted with excitement.

"Is that you with Regina?" Ruby asked. "And since when were you rocking the Disney colors, Snow?"

"It must be my counterpart in that land, Red. We knew it was a place closer to our theatrical versions," Snow noted.

"The way they're sitting it looks like they're on a talk show or something," David pointed out in confusion.

"Nah, more like one of those big deal Barbara Walters interviews they do once a year for Time Magazine," Emma pointed out.

" _...And we're back. For those of you joining us I'm interviewing the Lady Regina Mills, a well..._ alternate _version of the Evil Queen that came here seeking a new life from a different world from Auradon altogether. As many of you likely recall, Miss Mills led the investigation into the deplorable thefts of the supplies being sent to the Isle of the Lost that had reduced everyone, including the innocent children born there, to eating garbage and led to the bands of thieves involved being prosecuted for their crimes. She's also the current adviser and councilor to the first... well two groups of children from the Isle now attending prestigious Auradon Prep. And I'm to understand you'll be teaching there full time, next term?" Snow began._

" _That's correct, Princess White. I'll also be teaching a few economics and business seminars this term, both on campus, and in town for those without the means to attend Auradon Prep," Regina elaborated._

" _That's wonderful to hear. But before we get too deeply into teaching, I think the people in Auradon are more interested in learning more about you. There have been many rumors, and the Council of Royals has been briefed of course, but I want to give the regular citizens a chance to meet the real Regina Mills. To hear your story in your own words," Snow prodded._

" _Well..." Regina began with a contemplative look on her face. "I was born in my grandfather, King Xavier's, Kingdom to his second son, Prince Henry, and Cora Mills, who people here would know as both the miller's daughter who made her famous deal with Rumplestiltskin to spin straw into gold and later, much to the lament of many, and the Queen of Hearts. Although she did not earn her name in Wonderland for reasons nearly as benign as the Queen of Hearts currently on the Isle..."_

"Wow, talk about a perfect place to get a peek into things," Emma noted, flabbergasted. "Anyone feel like buying a lottery ticket right now, just in case?"

Her joke fell on deaf ears as the rest of the room gave their undivided attention to the television screen.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_ And that's it for that chapter. I really wanted to get into the full interview, but the story seemed to insist I take it here first. The interview itself will be next and it will get at least somewhat into the deeper topics of Regina's story, including a few darker themes the show ignored for the most part. We'll also likely see the reactions of both the people in Storybrooke and the VK's to learning a deeper version of what made Regina who she is. Don't expect Leopold to come off in a very flattering light. And the pain she felt at Henry's rejection will make him a less than liked "little brother" for Mal and Evie at this point. Also, don't expect Neal to be thrilled with the hardships his little sister faced, not his Papa's part in making them happen.

As always, I look forward to your comments, suggestions, PM's,and critiques. Please keep the comments coming and I hope I'll manage to get the next chapter out MUCH sooner than the time it took to get this one down. Until next time everyone.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Auradon**_

"And how, if I may ask, did your mother gain her title as Queen of Hearts?" Snow White prodded with a gentle smile.

"Well, that's skipping ahead in the story a few years, but I suppose it's a something to cover early on and get out of the way. Her title was mostly derived from two parts. The first was how she took a kingdom for herself in Wonderland after I managed to push her through an enchanted looking glass that Rumplestiltskin sent me as a wedding present to help me banish her. She was inspecting my wedding gifts as if they were own in my chambers as I looked over my recently completed wedding gown. She noted the looking glass thinking it was a portrait before showing disappointment to discover it was only a mirror after it was uncovered. If I recall correctly she made some snide comment about how the people did not think much of me to send such as plebeian gift. While her back was to it Rumple appeared in the mirror and motioned for me to use my magic to push her through, something I refused to do at that point in my life because I didn't want to become like my mother. Eventually, her verbal abuse, along with many other transgressions I'll cover soon, forced me to a breaking point. I tried to push her through in a fit of frustration, but she was able to stop herself from being sucked into the portal that opened and taunted me for my weakness. Her taunt was something of a final straw as I reached for my magic intentionally for the first time I could recall and overpowered her, forcing her into the portal the day before my wedding to King Leopold," Regina explained with a note of pride.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"I... never knew that was how it happened," Mary Margaret whispered to herself in morbid fascination. "I know it's naive knowing what I do about Cora now, but I always assumed Regina asked her to not attend the wedding because Daniel left her. Of course that was long before Regina ever told me he was killed. But I never really thought about the circumstances of Cora not being there."

"Papa was playing her. Giving her a taste of magic and power like a drug dealer giving out a free sample to get her hooked," Neal noted with a dark look. He knew his father was unaware of Regina's relation to them then, but it still burned to picture the Dark One manipulating his little sister like that.

"And Cora was brow-beating her to make her feel worthless after murdering the man she loved in front of her," Emma pointed out with a scowl as she recalled several less that inviting foster homes she remembered.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"And what was the second reason she became known as your universe's version of the Queen of Hearts?" Snow prodded.

Regina's smile was a gallows grin as she replied, "That one was much simpler. You see my mother was originally the miller's daughter that made the famous deal with Rumplestiltskin to spin straw into gold. Only instead of just doing that he actually taught her dark magic as well. Something she excelled at... even more than I could at my worst. Her favored way of dealing with those that disagreed with her or crossed her was to... take out their heart using magic. Once the heart is removed you can whisper to it to control a person. Or... you can crush it to kill them from any distance. Mother collected literally hundreds of hearts. She had an entire vault of them. I recall one of her favored punishments for me if I was overly defiant was to she them to me and lock me in with them overnight as a reminder of she could do the same to be but chose not to. The sound of them all beating together was terrifying in my youth. Although the glow they gave off was oddly beautiful. Looking back that was probably the warmth and innocence of the hearts I found comforting. But there were so many of them. Enemies of my mother, servants she did not want to risk betraying her, even people on the street who managed to irritate her. Mother was ruthless. Which I suppose was to be expected from a woman whose personal motto was 'love is weakness.' "

"That's a rather... grim tale. And a depressing outlook on life," Snow noted with sad eyes.

"Quite. And one Mother learned directly from my grandfather, King Xavier, from what I understand. It was a lesson he imparted on her before she married my father, Prince Henry," Regina explained.

"Your grandfather wanted a woman that did not love him to marry his son?" Snow asked surprised.

"You must understand that my father was a kind and gentle man. Daddy had more love in his heart than anyone I ever knew, hero or villain. He could even love and forgive me during the worst of my time as the Evil Queen. But that did not make for a good and stable heir in Xavier's eyes. And the fact he was only... third or fourth in line for the throne, if I remember correctly, meant he didn't mean overly much to grandfather either. But should he ever need to take the throne, grandfather wanted someone as ruthless as he was to take the reigns behind the scenes. Looking back, and given the fact my mother literally named me 'Regina' because she would accept nothing less than my becoming a queen, I think he fully expected her to usurp my uncles and take over the kingdom herself in Daddy's name. She had what he considered the disposition to rule moreso than the rest of my family," Regina pondered.

"But she never got that opportunity?" Snow asked, letting Regina take point in the interview and only prodding as needed to keep things moving.

"No. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your opinion of him, Grandfather had a tendency to bite off more than he could chew in starting conflicts with his neighbors. I was still quite young when he was defeated and overthrown by King Midas' army. Although Midas was very generous in letting our family live to go to settle in a summer estate we had on the border with our version of the White Kingdom. Not that mother enjoyed the move. She had always loathed Queen Eva with a passion. Just mentioning her name would leave her in a foul mood for days. Oh, forgive me dear, that must be a sore subject for you," Regina replied before interrupting herself as she noted the pained look on Auradon's Snow.

"That's fine. There's certain to be some overlap given that you are a different version of Stepmama," Snow assured her.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"She still calls her that," Snow muttered with tears in her eyes as David moved in to comfort her.

"Grandma?" Henry asked, concerned for his version of Snow.

"It's alright, Henry. It's just, that's what Snow called Regina when she was little. She still did it sometimes even when we were on the run together when she first ran away from her," Ruby noted with a look of concern for her oldest and closest friend. She knew better than most what nickname implied. This Snow loved her Grimhilde the same way Snow still loved Regina deep down. Being reminded of it so candidly must have cut the Fairest of Them All deeply.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"Moving on a bit, or perhaps back would be more appropriate, what was your childhood like in the Enchanted Forest?" Snow asked after visibly composing herself.

Regina's own expression grew more professional and reminiscent of her time as mayor as she reported, "Surprisingly happy during the early years. I recall running around playing dress up in mother's gowns and getting into her make-up as a child when we still lived in Grandfather's kingdom. Mother tolerated it since it showed an interest in being a princess, and it left her more time to study her magic and make her plans. I was given lessons on everything a queen would one day have to know: etiquette, maintaining a household, how to talk to other nobles, planning defenses during a siege, and things of that nature, but in my early years my mother was more... caring than she was after there was no longer any chance for me to inherit the throne."

"I hate to bring this up but your initial interviews indicated she was... well abusive was the term used in the reports received by the Council of Royals," Snow commented.

Regina looked distracted by the question before she nodded and replied, "Looking back on it she was. Especially after we moved to Leopold's kingdom. Although she preferred emotional and verbal abuse to anything physical with me even as she was more than willing to kill or maim anyone else that stood in her way. After all if I wasn't to be a queen through birth, she was determined to marry me onto a throne and she couldn't risk leaving marks on me. I was her showpiece. Her proof that her common origins did not mean she wasn't good enough to rule through me. When she wanted to reprimand me directly she preferred to use her magic. I think that's why I hated the thought of using magic at all until Rumple offered it to me after..." before trailing off.

"After what?" Snow asked gently, well aware of what this younger version of her stepmother was likely remembering.

"You know, I remember wishing on a star night after night for my fairy godmother to come help me after we moved. To make mother happy again so she wouldn't hurt me or anyone else again. Or failing that to take me away. I had no desire to be a queen. But they never heard me. They never came. The first fairy I met wasn't until after I was forced to marry the King," Regina continued as if she didn't hear the question.

"Regina, if this is too much we can cut the interview short," Snow offered.

"No. No, it helps to finally say these things out loud. To look at them with fresh eyes. Even under the truth spell while I was interrogated after my arrival and they were afraid I was Grimhilde, it felt better to discuss it with someone for once. Besides, I learned the hard way that keeping too many secrets can hurt you. It cost me my son's love and trust," Regina replied with a note of bitterness. She knew she had to discuss the painful parts of her life. Letting people see that side of her was essential to Queen Belle's plans to integrate her fully into Auradon. "Now, where were we, dear?"

"Well I think we were getting to the point of your meeting your Snow and how you became Queen. Although I must warn our viewers that it's not nearly as happy a tale as how my father courted Stepmama," Snow responded.

"Ah, indeed. I met my Snow when she was ten years old. She was riding through the edge of our lands on a horse by herself as part of her father's court making rounds, so to speak. I was out there riding and enjoying a picnic with our stable boy, Daniel, and noticed that her horse had been spooked; taking off with her at a full gallop. Being a well trained horsewoman of some regard thanks to Daddy and Daniel both I took off immediately at a full gallop and rescued her before she could be thrown since at that speed, and given her young age, such a fall would likely have been fatal. My Snow declared I was her hero and that I saved her life, a sentiment shared by her father," Regina recalled.

"And how old were you then?' Snow asked knowing it would be important to the story later.

"Just shy of seventeen," Regina replied with a sullen expression.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"Jesus!" Emma snapped in shock at what she heard. Listening to how Cora was a psycho-bitch wasn't that surprising, although she wasn't sure she really wanted to Henry there to hear it. It at least helped him to gain a perspective on just how dangerous his adopted grandmother really was if nothing else. But Regina was less than seven years older than M&M? Emma knew she didn't look that much older than her, but she had always assumed Regina just aged well or something. That she had been 24 or 25 she had met Emma's grandfather.

"What is it, Emma?" Snow asked, startled by her daughter's exclamation.

"Regina was only _sixteen_ when you met? She was just a freaking kid herself. What the hell was your dad thinking?" Emma asked, disgusted.

"That wasn't that uncommon of an age to marry then, Emma. Especially for nobility," Snow pointed out as if she didn't see a problem with Regina's age at the time.

"And how old was your dad?" Emma demanded.

"In his early fifties. He had been a few years older than mother when they had been wed as well," Snow admitted after a pause.

Emma's eyes were wide as she did her best to hold back another comment and continue to listen to the interview instead of getting too distracted at the notion Regina was practically a child-bride. The more she learned the more she understood just why the for mayor was so messed up in the head.

As for Neal, his hands were held into tight fists as he fought to keep his own silence. He understood some of Papa's words about Leopold now. But Neal knew he couldn't explode the way he wanted to. He was pretty sure he'd get kicked out and lose the change to get this insight into his little sister's past if he started yelling at Snow White of all people and accusing her father of being a pedophile.

As for David and Ruby, they maintained their silence for a different reason. It was true that most married young in the Enchanted Forest and arranged marriages with an age gap were not unheard of among nobility, but that didn't mean rank and file peasants agreed with the practice. Ruby, in particular, remembered her early years when she heard Granny sometimes referring to Regina as the "Child Queen" long before anyone was calling her the "Evil Queen."

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"Later that evening, after a dinner thrown to celebrate saving Snow, King Leopold sought to reward me for saving his daughter's life by proposing marriage," Regina added with a forced lack of emotion. She knew that if she let herself feel too much in that moment she might well lose herself and lash out at the woman interviewing her. And this Snow had nothing to do with her pain.

"Excuse me, but how old was fath... er your world's King Leopold?" Snow asked in shock as she started doing the math in her head and found herself balking at the very notion. Surely he must have been much younger then. He must have married young and had her counterpart with Mama no older than his early twenties.

"In his fifties. He was a few years older than my mother and already going quite gray at the time," Regina pointed out with a sneer of disgust she could not hold back.

 _So he was actually OLDER than my father?_ Snow thought furiously. She was well aware she had been a later-in-life baby for her parents, which was part of the reason they had cherished her so when she was young, but the thought of her Papa marrying a girl less than seven years her senior horrified her. Were she not the professional journalist she was, she was quite certain she would be running to the bathroom to throw up. What kind of nightmare world did Regina actually _**come**_ from? She held back her initial reaction as she uncomfortably asked, "And he... proposed to you?"

"Indeed. He had been shopping for a new wife to help raise his daughter for a while after the official mourning period was over and my Snow was apparently singing my praises to anyone that would listen after I saved her. Her being so enamored with me made me perfect for the job in his estimation," Regina noted with a shake of her head at the absurdity of it all.

"And what was your reaction?" Snow asked as she tried to wrap her head around all of this.

"Honesltly? Shock. Disgust. Terror. Especially since I had fallen in love with out stable boy, Daniel, and we had been secretly preparing to run away together and elope for a while before any of this happened. Of course, nobody knew about our relationship and my mother was all too eager to accept for me before I could even think of refusing. She was so pleased that if I didn't know any better I would have thought she was accepting for herself instead," Snow replied with a sneer at her mother's reaction.

"I know the next part of the story is horrible for you, but do you think you can keep going?" Snow asked after a moment to compose herself.

"Of course. Well, needless to say I was less than thrilled with my new engagement, although Snow was overjoyed at the thought of my becoming her new mother. Anyway the first moment I had to myself I ran to Daniel over in the stable in tears to tell him the news. The dear man, sweet as he was, held and consoled me before telling me we would run away together that very night. And I loved him, so very much. I agreed and we shared a deep kiss, only to be interrupted by a very shocked little Princess Snow. She was quite upset to see me kissing someone other than her father and wanted to know what was going on. I... I explained that Daniel and I were in love and told her that True Love was the most powerful magic of all. Then I told her that we were running away later that evening and she could tell no one. I made her promise to tell no one."

There was a tense silence in the room as tears welled up in Regina's eyes, memories of Daniel's first death and his recent resurrection filling her mind.

"But it didn't work out that way, did it?" Snow pressed gently.

"No. Snow let it slip to my mother as I packed. She later told me that she didn't want me to lose my mother the way she had lost hers. That she thought my mother would understand. But my mother was a monster and the entire kingdom knew it. They didn't cross her openly because she was a powerful and vengeful sorceress, but she wasn't to be trusted. Even Leopold never would have trusted her," Regina insisted with angry tears.

"And what was the result of her telling your secret?" Snow asked.

"My mother met us in the stable just before we left, sealing the doors with magic. I pleaded with her to let us go and that Daniel and I were in love. That I would be happy to live the rest of my life as a simple peasant with him. She... she took him to the side and asked if he loved me. When he said yes she told him that she did too, and that if he were ever a parent he would understand the love of a parent for a child. That they would do anything to ensure their child's happiness. Then, before I could even cry out, she ripped out his heart and crushed it to dust in front of me. Daniel... he died in my arms. And before he had even grown cold that... woman said I had mourned long enough and it was time for me to become a Queen. She murdered my True Love in front of me and didn't even care. She...sold me to a man old enough to be my father, if not my grandfather. I was nothing but a pawn to her," Regina seethed.

"And, I'm afraid to ask, but was your marriage to the King a happy one?" Snow inquired, hoping Regina had at least had some of the happiness Grimhilde had shared with her own father in the early years of their marriage.

"No," Regina reported icily. "I was a seventeen year old maiden that had never done more than share chaste stolen kisses in her life, that had watched her True Love die in her arms, and that had to marry to a man nearly forty years her senior while being expected to raise the child that had betrayed her trust and helped to facilitate the entire situation. I was less than pleased with my situation to say the least."

"I...I don't think I'll ask you what your private life was like then," Snow said with a gulp to swallow back her own bile.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"Snow?" Emma asked in horror.

As for Mary Margaret, she was too busy contemplating what Regina had just said and connecting several dots she never had before to even acknowledge her daughter.

"He was the King, and her husband, Em'. She couldn't refuse him if she wanted to. Her primary duty would be to produce a second heir to the throne in case something happened to your Mom," Neal pointed out as he felt a deep sense of shame with the customs of their shared homeland.

"Ma, what does that mean? What happened to my Mom that has everyone so upset?" Henry asked, his sheltered life thank to Regina leaving him thankfully ignorant to the implications of what he had heard.

"Leave it alone, Henry," Paige said after nobody answered. Her Poppa had made sure she was aware of the dangers of being a girl in the Enchanted Forest and other realms. She had a better understanding of what she had heard. And in that moment she envied her friend his innocence.

"But-" Henry started only to be cut off.

"Trust me Henry, you don't want to know. Regina made sure you didn't see some the uglier parts of the world growing up. Just, don't ask kid. Not right now. Please stay a kid a little longer," Emma cut in as she hugged Henry to herself as if afraid that if she let go he would float away.

"It's not true. It can't be true," Snow whispered to herself, although it was clear she was having a hard time with her own denial.

"Snow, you didn't seriously think _that much_ hate and anger just came from you spilling one secret when you were ten did you?" Ruby asked gently.

"I... I never wanted to think about it too much. There was already so much history between us and she was the reason for my Father's death," Snow insisted.

"It didn't excuse all she did later, Snow," David said although even he was unsure how much he believed that in that moment.

The silent _No but it sure explains it all a lot better_ hung over the room like a death shroud.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"So, what were your happiest memories of your time as Queen? Did you have any friends?" Snow asked, if only to try to drag things away from the topic they were dancing around. At this point she wasn't sure that this "Enchanted Forest" wasn't another name for "Hell" quite honestly.

"Just one, well two I suppose, although I don't think one will ever forgive me if she's even still alive," Regina noted almost wistfully.

"Oh, who were they?" Snow asked with a smile.

"The first was the fairy that should have been my Fairy Godmother if the Blue fairy had not banned them all from approaching me, I assume, because of my mother" Regina replied.

"And which fairy was that?" Snow asked, half expecting it to be Maleficent herself in this nightmarish world that Regina had escaped from.

"Believe it or not, Tinkerbell," Regina noted fondly.

"Tink? Really?" Snow asked.

"Indeed. In fact the one chance I got to meet her she saved my life," Regina reminisced.

"And what can you tell the viewers about that?" Snow asked encouragingly.

"It was perhaps a year or two after my marriage. I was at the railing of the tallest tower in the palace one night contemplating my situation and all it entailed. My Snow was, if I recall correctly, traveling to a neighboring Kingdom and I had been thankfully left behind so that the entire royal family would not be in the same place at the same time. Or at least that was what I was told. Frankly the less time I had to spend playing happy Queen the better so I didn't honestly care. Either way I was looking out into the night when the railing gave way from under me and I fell from the top of the tallest tower," Regina continued.

"No," snow replied in shock her had flying to her mouth in fright for Regina's safety.

"Fortunately Tink had been happening to fly be that evening in spite of Blue's orders and managed to catch me and save me. After that we had a cordial conversation where she introduced herself and insisted on trying to somehow make me happy. She wanted to use pixie dust to find a soulmate for me to soothe loss of my lost love," Regina explained.

"That sounds-" Snow was about to say "romantic" before she was cut off.

"Foolish? I was already married to the King, remember. I would never have been allowed to leave and whoever 'stole me away'" would like be imprisoned or executed for their 'crime'," Regina pointed out cynically.

"I... hadn't considered that," Snow admitted with a frown.

"Nor did I at first, honestly. Regardless the pixie dust trail led of to a local tavern, but I was honestly too afraid to look in. I was terrified that if I met someone that could make me happy, if I let go of my rage, that I would be betraying Daniel. That I was forgetting him somehow. So I refused to go in," Regina admitted.

"And Tinkerbell?" Snow asked.

"I never saw her again. I imagine she's furious with me for refusing her aid when she offered it against the orders of Reul Ghorm herself. But I honestly wasn't ready to try to move on. I wouldn't be for a good long while," Regina explained.

"I think I can understand that," Snow admitted.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"Me too," Emma murmured from where she still held Henry close. As she did she remembered Gold's words in his shop about an incident that sounded suspiciously like this one. Only Gold had referred to it as a suicide attempt. Was Regina trying to sugarcoat the situation for this interview? Did she make up some kind of different scenario in her mind to escape what she had tried to do to herself?

"That shouldn't be possible," Mary Margaret commented to David with a furrowed brow.

"What do you mean, Snow?" he asked.

"I know that railing. It was reinforced like every one of the balconies in the royal quarters to ensure the safety of the royal family. Several men could have hung from it at once without it giving way. There's no way Regina's weight alone could make it collapse. She's not exactly a large woman," Snow insisted.

"Maybe it was weakened on purpose? Not everyone was thrilled there was a new Queen even from the start of her reign. Eva was very loved," Ruby suggested.

"Or it could have been a flaw in the construction. Those kinds of things did happen back home, Snow," David tried to assure her.

But even as they said it the adults of the Charming Clan had their doubts.

As for Neal, he was probably closest to the truth. After all he had studied as much about magic as he could in his youth in the hopes of destroying it to restore his father someday, and later just to try to protect himself from the Dark One. The one thing that came to mind was the magic was emotion. And a women likely brimming with it from both sides of her family like Regina could do things without even realizing it if she was unhappy enough. Things like weaken mortar and rot steel.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"And who was your second friend?" Snow asked after a pause.

"My closest friend by far. Really my only confidant I ever trusted other than Daddy," Regina admitted with a gentle smile. "Maleficent."

Snow was not exactly shocked by the revaluation given her reading of the notes from Regina's original interrogation as she noted, "I'm sure that would make some people here nervous. But I also know that she was very different from out Maleficent. Can you tell us some of the differences?"

"Well for one she wasn't considered a fairy at all. She was a dragon sorceress that could take human form, no more, no less. But to be honest, given the similar nature of her powers and the tiny lizard form she cursed herself into here, I think your Mal is likely a dragon too that just didn't bother to correct anyone when they started calling her the Evil Fairy," Regina noted with a shake of her head.

"And to be clear you're not confusing her with your ward Mal, the daughter of Auradon's Maleficent and girlfriend of our young King Ben," Snow pointed out to the camera directly.

"No, forgive me if I slip a bit from time to time, but I was very used to calling my Maleficent 'Mal' instead. She was, after all, my best friend," Regina noted with a sad smile.

"And how did you come to meet her?" Snow asked.

"Well I had studied magic for a little while with Rumple but found I had little taste for the imp and his ways at first. It certainly didn't help that he had trained my mother and I wanted nothing to do with being like her. Regardless I was studying on my own from books, hoping against hope to find some way to bring Daniel back to life since it was magic that had killed him in the first place. Even Rumple told me it was impossible, but I refused to listen. I was young and idealistic then, I suppose.

But I digress. I had heard of Maleficent, who had retreated to her castle after being defeated by Stephan and his bride, Briar Rose, and yes that was the nickname for Queen Leah rather than Princess Aurora in my world. Anyway I sought her out hoping she could teach me more about magic and what I found was not what I expected," Regina began.

"And what was that?" Snow asked in rapt attention.

"I expected an all powerful and wise dragon sorceress. What I got, was a very broken woman. Simply put Maleficent had given up on even living. She was dosing herself with a mixture of her Sleeping Curse, toadstool, and sea water to take the edge off her pain and leave herself in an almost opiate-induced state. Which meant, given that she was a dragon, that the mixture would likely be lethal to any human foolish enough to try it. But her fire had quite literally gone out. She mocked me for seeking her out, called my a foolish little girl, in fact. Then she challenged me to use my magic to light the fire in her fireplace.

Nobody in the Enchanted Forest or Storybrooke would likely ever believe this but it took me half a dozen tries to even get a spark, much less the weak fireball I used to eventually light the hearth, much to Mal's amusement. Still she was grateful to warm herself for the first time in ages. And I think she was equally grateful for the company. She still had almost no access to her magic and had lost access to her dragon form, but I was determined to help her. I didn't care that she was a villain or that she was dangerous, I saw myself in her and I wanted to help. You could say we became fast friends," Regina continued.

"I assume you helped your Maleficent to overcome her depression?" Snow asked, enthralled by the story.

"Not without almost getting myself killed first. We had gone out riding in the flats between Maleficent's lands and Stephan's only to be confronted by King Stephan himself and his elite guard. Needless to say we were horribly outmatched and outnumbered given Maleficent had no magic and I could maybe create a fireball one try in three I was so inexperienced back then. I set a tree on fire and tried to bluff them into leaving but they were having none of it. I was certain I would have to reveal my position as Leopold's wife just to save us from the executioner's axe, assuming they didn't just dispose of us on the battlefield, when Mal rediscovered her inner dragon to protect me. She took her true form and sent the lot of them packing with hardly an effort.

From that point on, whenever Leopold and Snow were traveling, Mal and I were inseparable. We laughed, and drank, and learned magic together. Those were some of my happiest moments," Regina recalled. Although she did not go into _everything_ she and Mal got up to in their wilder days. Some details did not need to be shared, particularly where young ears might overhear them on TV.

"Of course, nothing good could last forever. Maleficent cursed Aurora as she had her mother a generation ago, and Philip woke her. Maleficent took that as her sign to finally start to let things go and try to live her own life instead of one focused on revenge. She took a pygmy unicorn as a pet and tried to find peace. While I... I tried one more ridiculous gambit to resurrect Daniel before it all fell apart for me. I was taken in by a couple of charlatans offering to bring him back and when it failed... I broke. I returned to Rumple to continue my studies and decided that if I could not have my true love, I'd have revenge on those that took him from me. From there, well I can't say I was proud of all that I did. I became a monster in every sense of the word over the years, but I was honestly too immersed in my own darkness to care," Regina admitted.

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_ Okay this one is getting kind of long so I'll just cut it off here and do the interview in two parts. I kind of figured I would need to anyway. The second half will detail Regina's fall into madness as the Evil Queen, her resolution to cast the Dark Curse, her time in Storybrooke, adopting Henry, and eventually deciding to concede "defeat" and start over in Auradon. She won't pull any punches admitting to the things she did but honestly, when you know her history and aren't here to see the corpses it will still do the job of painting her in a very sympathetic light with nothing but the truth.

Suffice it to say that when Emma and the rest of the Charming Softball team come calling, nobody in Auradon will be looking to let them take Regina back to what they see as a nightmare of a realm without a fight.

As always, I look forward to comments, suggestions and criticisms. Leave a review or a PM and let me know what you all think. Until next time.


	12. Chapter 12

_**Auradon**_

"And what was your last gambit, if I might ask?" Snow asked with a sorrowful look. Her heart was breaking hearing all that Regina had faced even if she aware of it academically before the interview.

Regina looked pensive for a moment before she replied, "I had left Rumple's instruction again. He told me Daniel couldn't be brought back because it violated one of the fundamental laws of magic: you can't bring back the dead. But I was stubborn. I thought if I could just have him back... I'd be free to abdicate the stupid throne to my Snow, take Daniel and Daddy with me, leave and never look back. I was such a fool.

I had encountered Jefferson, the Mad Hatter. The same person that helped me come to Auradon, actually. He was nice enough, charming in a scatterbrained way, but he offered to introduce me to a man from another world, once that was an expert in the studies of life and death. He claimed that with the right enchanted heart, one strong enough, he could resurrect Daniel. Especially since one of the first magic spells Rumple ever taught me was a preservation charm that had him looking as he had the night he had perished at Mother's hands."

"And who was this expert?" Snow inquired.

"A renowned doctor and scientist, Dr. Victor von Frankenstein. I'm... not certain if his stories are known here?" Regina asked.

"They are, although they are considered completely fictional in this realm. They were fairly popular in the lands where the Darling Siblings and Cruella DeVil all hail from, as I recall," Snow informed her.

"Yes, well, I was sadly not as informed at the time of the fact all the good doctor had ever achieved was making a dangerous monster from spare body parts and that he had no successes in bringing back anyone intact that had died. But, apparently he had a theory using hearts and was _certain_ it could be done with Daniel using one of my mother's collection. It was all lies, of course. Ones they were both forced to tell at Rumple's order, I later learned from the Hatter after I forced him to take me to Wonderland in recompense for his lies long into my tenure as the Evil Queen."

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"And crap like that would be part of why I'm not big on the whole 'But he's her father' argument, mom," Emma snorted with poorly concealed contempt. "How did anyone ever miss that most of the bad things going on in fairy tale land or whatever always came to rest right on Gold's slimy doorstep?"

"It wasn't that we didn't know, Emma. It's that for a long time he was too powerful and too crafty to do anything about. And there was never a shortage of desperate people willing to make a deal with the Dark One," David explained with a shake of his head. "Looking back, I'm pretty sure that even when we imprisoned him, he was exactly where he wanted to be to make sure the Curse happened."

"That sounds like Papa, alright. Reading people and playing them to make his deals is what he does. Don't forget the was doing this longer than any other Dark One in history, Em. He's my father and I still love him, but I know better than to ever fully trust him. And I'm saying that seeing the improvement in him as he tries to find Regina," Neal pointed out.

"Yeah, I get that. But he was like the Charlie Manson of the Enchanted Forest or something, but with superpowers. Why was everyone and their sister blaming Regina when he was pulling the strings?" Emma demanded.

"We could fight Regina and have a hope in hell of surviving, for one," Ruby noted uncomfortably.

"And what you're hearing here wasn't exactly common knowledge. Most of it, outside of her knowing Maleficent after she became the Evil Queen and what we learned from encountering Jefferson, is news to me and I lived with her for eight years before I ran away, Emma. Regina was never one to share what was bothering her, nor was she a fan of revealing weaknesses. Father never forced that attitude into me, but many royal heirs and other nobles were taught to keep everything inside. I don't doubt for a moment that Cora was... stricter than most teaching those lessons to Regina. Especially with her dark magic to reinforce the lessons. The fact Regina is revealing it publicly like this is astonishing. If Jefferson hadn't told us they used truth spells to get the story first from her I don't know if I could allow myself to believe it," Mary Margaret added.

"So why do you think she's doing it now? Turning over a new leaf or not, I can't see her as the sharing type, especially to what looks like you," Emma asked, her mind switching unconsciously to investigation mode.

"Probably as some kind of propaganda piece for the regular citizens to help them trust Regina now that she seems to be developing some kind of recognition and prominence. It would earn sympathy and separate her from Grimhilde in their minds," Mary Margaret conjectured.

"And Regina would do that?" Emma asked.

"If she's trying to live peacefully there and the royal family asked it of her, she would. Especially if she's working with children," Snow pointed out.

Mentioning children made Henry remember the kids from the Isle Regina had all but adopted. His face grew sullen and resentful at the thought.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"So, obviously, the attempt failed. I was heartbroken all over again and I had nothing. The closest thing to a good thing in my life was Leopold's death, but I was mostly numb to even that," Regina noted.

"And just to be clear, how did... King Leopold die in your world?" Snow asked. She refused to refer to that... person as anything akin to being her father. The notion of it made her ill.

"Well, by that time Leopold had become aware of some of my... dalliances with Maleficent and grew concerned with the image it projected, among other things, he had confined me mostly to the Castle grounds. I was quite literally a bird in the gilded cage at that point. Although, by then he hardly even looked at me anymore, thank god," Regina explained.

"What had changed?" Snow asked.

"A couple of things. First, some of the nobles had pointed out that if I produced a male heir it might be better to let that child ascend to the throne in place of Snow and she could be married off to someone advantageous. The King tended to cling to Snow as his last tangible connection to Eva and didn't like the thought of endangering her place in succession. The other... well one night when he had been having more wine than he should have and expected to make use of my wifely duties, he was particularly rough with me. That wasn't as unusual as I would have liked, although I had mostly learned to tune it out and let things finish rather than try to fight it. He was King and I had no choice. But that night, he was angrier than usual and he called me 'Cora' as he finished with me. I was so shocked I actually asked him if he had just called me my mother. He seemed to freeze for a moment before paling and just walked out. That was the last time he ever touched me beyond public displays of affection for the royal court. It was like I didn't even exist unless my Snow was in the room," Regina explained with a clinically detached manner that spoke of how traumatizing these events had truly been.

"But I digress," she continued. "Among some magical artifacts we had come into possession of was a lamp containing a genie, the Genie that once served Aladdin himself, in point of fact. We freed him from his confinement quite accidentally and Leopold was immediately taken with him and declared him an honored guest of the Kingdom. That was probably the worst mistake he ever made," Regina noted with grim satisfaction.

"What happened?" Snow prodded, enthralled with the story in spite of herself.

"The Genie, I suppose it's easier not to call him by the name the Dark Curse gave him of Sidney, if only to disassociate him from Jordan's father," Regina answered, "was immediately taken with me, quite a bit more taken than he should have been with a married woman, to be frank. He also noted how desperately unhappy I was in my marriage and my life in general. He asked what had made me so unhappy as the Queen and I told him exactly what my life was like at that point."

Regina shook her head ruefully as she recalled, "The sad part was that I was completely honest with him about everything. I didn't embellish a single thing. But it was enough that Sidney took it upon himself to summon an Agraban viper and use it to kill the King. He thought he was winning my love and affection with the act, but by then all I felt was a detached sort of satisfaction. It probably didn't help that he had a rather clingy and obsessive personality that I never found all that appealing, either. Eventually I used his devotion to me to trap him in my magic mirror as the spirit there. At least then I could have some kind of privacy."

"So your mirror didn't have the soul of your father within it?" Snow asked, well aware of the history of Grimhilde's favorite artifact.

"No, as I said my father the best and sweetest man I ever knew. He was a far cry from the emotionally abusive lout that raised Grimhilde and got himself trapped in her mirror with the help of the Dwarfs," Regina denied.

After a pause to consider that Regina and her father so far seemed to be the only people from her world that came out lighter than their counterparts in Auradon Snow continued, "So, you continued to raise your Snow after her father died?"

"For two years before things degenerated enough that she fled from me. She assumed I had concocted a specific plot to assassinate Leopold when all I did was let the facade I had put up for the previous six years before his death slip to a sympathetic ear and start to show how much her presence angered me. If she ever knew how many times Maleficent had offered to kill her and her father both for me and I refused- Anyway I let Snow run with a few token guards chasing her, mostly just to harass her at that point as she was rather pathetic by all reports at trying to survive on her own, and made my ill-fated attempt to bring Daniel back. It failed utterly and I just broke inside. I decided then and there that if I could not have my True Love, I'd have revenge on those that killed him. Although I had few illusions about being able to do anything to my mother as I was. She was just too powerful. And she was still my mother. Maybe I just wasn't far enough gone yet to attack her outright from her seat of power in Wonderland. I marched straight from Mother's heart vault to where Rumple was training his 'new' apprentice, some girl that looked vaguely like me but in a gypsy dress. To this day I don't have any idea who she was or where she came from. All I know was that Rumple taunted me for leaving his instruction and noted his new protege was far more eager to learn. The little trollop gave me a superior little smirk and I lost it. For the first time in my life I reached in and took someone's heart out the way my mother did. I crushed it to dust before she could even so much as gasp in shock; and without even looking at her I informed Rumple that it appeared I was his only apprentice after all. It's hard to believe now, but I think that was the first time I ever killed someone myself. And that leering imp just giggled, twiddling his fingers in delight as he watched me darken my heart to prove myself to him after rejecting him earlier and declaring I would never become like my mother." Regina recalled. "I remember crying and throwing up until I dry heaved that night in the privacy of my own chambers, but I never showed a moment of weakness in front of Rumple again."

"That's a rather frightful tale," Snow admitted.

"I was a rather frightful person, dear," Regina replied. "I was completely broken. At that point all I wanted was my revenge. I wanted my Snow to suffer as I had. I recalled the lesser guards I had tracking her, declared her a traitor to the kingdom legally, which actually turned the people further against me, and made a deal with Graham, the huntsman, to have him bring me Snow's heart in exchange for expanding the laws protecting wolves in my Kingdom. He swore that if he had not succeeded by the time I recalled him that his life was mine. And just as with your Huntsman his compassionate heart forced him to allow her to escape. Although Graham was at least honorable enough to admit to his failure and the reasons behind it rather than bringing me a deer's heart in its place. I didn't kill him, he was too useful for that, but I did take his heart in recompense for failing to bring hers. From that moment forward, he was the first person I truly felt like I had power over. He became something of a favored pet, the symbol of the fact I was in control for once in my life.

Which was all nonsense looking back on it. Rumple was controlling me utterly, leading me exactly where he wanted me, and I was acting no better than my mother or Leopold with how I treated the Huntsman. Now that I think about it in detail I suppose I had suffered some kind of psychotic break. I was lashing out at the world. Snow had to pay for wanting me to pay at being her mother in the life I had led. Graham had to pay for failing me and for daring to be a man in my presence after what I had endured in my marriage. Villagers that protected Snow had to pay for defying their Queen. I just didn't care anymore as long as people hurt the way I was hurting. Except the one I should have been blaming was Rumple but I never even thought to oppose him," Regina explained.

"That was when it became particularly popular to call me the Evil Queen. It didn't matter that I ran the Kingdom efficiently, kept taxes moderate, and ensured we never had shortages through the winters. In the eyes of the people I was Leopold's little trophy wife that had usurped Snow. I think that was where the ridiculous rumor I hated her for being prettier than me came from, too. And it only got worse as I revealed I had the same dark magic my mother possessed. They just assumed I had enchanted Leopold to get the throne. As if I ever wanted it, or that disgusting old man pawing at me. But the peasants saw what they wanted to see. Most of them couldn't even read, much less understand what was going on in terms of royal politics. They made an opinion and stood by it. I still tried to just be Queen Regina then, but it finally got to the point that one day when I was visiting Rumple and he taunted my with what the people were calling me, I just looked in his mirror and smiled as I replied 'The Queen is dead, long live the Evil Queen'," Regina reported.

"From there my reign began in earnest. My Snow by that time had taken up being a bandit of all things to protect herself, mostly because I had become rather ruthless in imprisoning and executing anyone that harbored her as a traitor to the crown," she continued.

"That's... well it seems extreme now in the days of Auradon but if she left willingly and was stirring up sentiments of rebellion then under the laws that predated our new nation that seems much more... reasonable than the reasons Stepmama pursued me," Snow pointed out.

"Just because the charges were technically true under laws Leopold himself enforced like every other ruler before him didn't change public sentiment. Nobody cared that I had the legal and legitimate right to the throne the moment Leopold chose to name me his Queen instead if simply the King's Consort. They didn't care that Snow had committed treason or that bandits themselves could be summarily executed for their crimes. They certainly didn't care to know the real reasons I hated her. They just made up their own reasons to paint her as a victim. Eva and Leopold had been beloved by them and that instantly painted me as the villain as their replacement in place of their daughter," Regina explained.

"Although it didn't help that I was becoming progressively more violent and ruthless as my reign went on. Grandfather certainly would have been proud. It was bad enough that the three or four times Mother actually left Wonderland to check on me she actually approved of how I was ruling. If that didn't wake me up to what I was becoming I suppose nothing would have," she added ruefully.

"What were your mother's visits like?" Snow prodded.

"Mostly her attempts to get back in my good graces. The first one I almost immediately ordered her from my sight. The second she noted how unhappy I was and started trying to push me to have an heir. According to her I made her life worth living and a child could do the same for me. Which I didn't believe for a moment. I was her tool to prove her place in society, no more, no less. Worse yet, when I mentioned it to Rumple he brought up the point that if I had an easy to control heir I would become surplus to demand, so to speak," the former Evil Queen continued.

Snow's hands flew to her mouth in shock as she asked, "You don't mean to say that you thought?"

Regina snorted in derision as she responded, "In a cold minute. Mother was all about control and I have no doubt my growing power to oppose her bothered her. She'd remove me and use whatever son or daughter I had in my place. So to counteract it I commissioned Rumple to brew a potion to render myself permanently infertile. No child of mine would suffer under Cora as I had. The madness and pain would stop with me one way or another."

"And how did Cora take that?" Snow prodded

"She just shook her head sadly and lamented that I had no idea what I had done. Looking back she was right, it was an emotional and impulsive decision, but I still can't find it in me to regret that I kept any child of mine away from her. The thought of her touching my son, or Evie, Mal, and the other kids here still makes me want to break out in a cold sweat. My mother is a heartless monster. I'm just so thankful that with Henry living with his birth family and the others here someplace she could never hope to find that I don't have to worry about her any longer," Regina replied.

"Did she visit any more after that?" Snow asked.

"Just once, when I had been holding a celebration for my birthday. She swore she would do what I kept failing to do and would get my Snow's heart for me as the only present I wanted. Daddy tried to intervene in the whole thing and later admitted to being the reason why mother failed. She certainly thought she had succeeded when she came to me in my chambers with a box containing what she thought was Snow's heart. I used my magic mirror to peek in on her as she was having a party of her own with her shepherd prince, the Dwarfs, Miss Lucas, Jiminy Cricket, and a few other of her closest cohorts. She was making a mocking toast to me on my birthday as I crushed the heart, watching with glee as she choked and slumped over. Only to discover it was a bit of mocking playacting with the Cricket jumping out of her coat as her "heart." Mother had apparently obtained the heart of one of my older guards instead who I ended up killing for no reason." Regina said.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"Oh god, of all the times she could have been looking in on us," Snow lamented, embarrassed she had been caught callously mocking her stepmother like that on her birthday.

"Is anyone else bothered that Regina could literally spy on you whenever she felt like?" Emma asked.

"What do you mean, Em?" Ruby asked.

"I mean, how did you guys NOT all get slaughtered inside of five minutes? She could literally look in on you anywhere, she could do that Darth Vader-y telekinesis crap, she could throw around freaking fireballs, rip out someone's heart and crush it, and from what you told me about the Town Hall meeting while we were in the Enchanted Forest she was literally plucking Granny's arrow from her crossbow right out of the air when you were shooting at her. Can someone explain why exactly she didn't butcher you within a day and get on with her life?" Emma demanded.

"Bolts, Emma. A crossbow fires bolts, a longbow fires arrows," Ruby corrected automatically.

"Whatever. And we'll get to how less than thrilled I was over people trying to murder Henry's other mom in front of him later, but seriously what the hell? She should have killed you all," Emma insisted.

"Good always wins in the end, Emma," Mary Margaret offered by way of explanation.

"Really. That's your reasoning?" Emma asked in a deadpan.

"In all fairness, Regina never seemed to be going for the kill with Snow or those close to her. She'd kill those that defied her directly while she was trying to find your mom but she always went for a capture, or the sleeping curse, or something like that until her aborted execution. I just never really thought about it since that's how things always went," Ruby commented as her brows furrowed in speculation.

"Whoa, hold on. What do you mean execution?" Emma asked.

"It was after we had dethroned George to oppose Regina directly, but before we took back the White Kingdom and she retreated to the Dark Forest and took back part Xavier's holdings to form the Dark Kingdom. We finally captured her and were going to execute her by firing squad. She gave an awful speech about how all she regretted as that she hadn't managed to cause me any more pain as her last words and remained defiant to the end. The archers let loose their arrows I just couldn't do it and cried out for Blue to stop them. The arrows halted less than an inch from her body," Snow admitted.

"That must have been a relief for her," Emma commented in shock.

Ruby chuckled as she replied, "Actually she tried to stab Snow in the gut with a hidden dagger the first moment she could in her cell when Snow offered her peace. If Rumplestiltskin hadn't already cast the spell that prevented her from directly hurting Snow or David in the Enchanted Forest, your mom might have died there. Now that I think about it that was the only time she ever tried to actually kill either of your parents herself."

"I was dying from a sword wound as the curse overtook us, Ruby," David pointed out.

"Yeah, from a guard you challenged defending Emma. For someone that always wanted to do things for herself Regina didn't seem all that eager to get any of yours or Snow's blood on her hands, David. And the look on her face before she realized she had been saved was one of relief. If anything I think she was furious Snow saved her. And I think we're starting to understand why a lot better," Ruby countered.

"My mom wanted to die?" Henry asked in a hoarse voice just above a whisper.

"We don't know that for sure, Kid. But I think she was very sad for a lot longer than anyone knew. And it's not like they had any real psychiatrists to help her back then," Emma comforted as she hugged Henry and gave everyone a look over his head that told them to table this particular topic until Henry and Paige were out of the room.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"I mocked Mother for her failure and told her I would achieve my goals myself before telling her to go back to Wonderland and never return. When she was gone Daddy came to me and admitted to switching the heart with one from her vault and returning Snow's to her. I was upset but I had no intention of actually hurting him so I shrunk him down the size of a doll and locked him in a jewelry box to think about what he had done while I went cool off. Mother took it as an opportunity to kidnap him to punish me for my defiance and took him back to Wonderland with her. I ended up calling in Jefferson to pay what he owed me for his treachery by taking me to Wonderland to recover my father, then abandoned him there to face mother's wrath. At the time I felt it was better than he deserved even if he did admit to betraying me under Rumple's orders. Before that I had thought he might actually be my friend and I did not take the betrayal very well." Regina explained.

"And was that the last interaction with your mother?" Snow asked.

"It was the last time I saw her. Although by then the kidnapping of Daddy and trying to use him as a bargaining chip had been the last straw for me. I hired an experienced realm jumper, Killian Jones, also known as Captain Hook, to assassinate her in exchange for my help in his quest to destroy the Dark One. From what I understood, Rumple had killed the woman Killian loved in front of him in revenge for something Hook refused to explain and if anyone could sympathize with that kind of vendetta it was me. I was led to believe he had succeeded and was even presented with a body to put in the family crypt but it was a ruse. Mother had managed to turn Hook into her own agent in exchange for protection from the Dark Curse and I was played for a fool by someone else I had trusted," Regina elaborated.

"And that brings us to probably the biggest thing in your life before you created the town of Storybooke, the Dark Curse itself. What can you tell the viewers about it?" Snow asked.

"It was supposedly Rumple's crowning achievement, although he claimed he was incapable of casting it himself. He offered it to me as the ultimate revenge, a way to snatch away the happy endings of my enemies and create one of my own. I should have known better. I _did_ know better than to trust Rumple, but he dangled it out there to bait me and I took it like a worm on a hook," Regina explained.

"And what exactly did it do?" Snow asked.

"It would take everyone it touched from the Enchanted Forest to an unknown realm, what I later learned to be the Land Without Magic, and rewrite their lives to give them complete new ones that separated them from their true loves. In reality, the whole thing was a sham designed to get Rumple to the Land Without Magic to find the son he had lost in a portal to that world four hundred years previously, but I had no idea about that until well after the Curse was broken, probably a week before I had left for Auradon," Regina explained.

"And did you cast it right away?" Snow asked.

"No, the cost for the spell was more than I wanted to pay. You already had to have the darkest heart possible, which explained why Rumple had been grooming me to become the Evil Queen for literally my entire life, but it still came with a terrible cost. To cast the curse, you had to sacrifice the heart of the one you loved most in the world. It was the blackest of magics, something even I at my worst was reluctant to consider. Initially I traded it to Maleficent, who I knew had no intention of ever casting something so vile, for her Sleeping Curse and used it to curse my Snow. I hoped that revenge would be enough for me," Regina recalled.

"Somehow I don't get the feeling you came to your Snow in the form of a kindly old peddler woman," the Snow White of Auradon commented.

"Hardly," Regina noted sardonically. "I sent her a note and had her meet me at Daniel's grave under a banner of truce for a parlay. I told her the truth of his death that I had hidden from her until that day, telling her instead that he had run away-" Regina began.

"Why did you hide that?" Snow interjected, knowing this had been a point the Queen Mother of Auradon had wanted her to stress.

Regina looked annoyed at the interruption but finally responded, "Because she was only ten. As bad as I was and I much as I wanted her to pay for her part in Daniel's death I couldn't burden her like that. She was still mostly an innocent child. Her real crime was chaining me to her disgusting father because she wanted me at her side as her mother. It was the same reason I refused the petitions to marry her off to some ass of a Prince like James when she reached sixteen and her father was gone. I refused to do to her what was done to me. After all, if my plans had worked the way I wanted them to I was gong to give her the throne and never look back. But it was all a stupid pipe dream and that was the moment I came to terms with it. There was no happy ending for me. No way back from the path I was on. So I told her of her role in Daniel's death and offered her peace and full amnesty for her allies so long as she remained under the Sleeping Curse. She bit the apple knowing full well what it entailed and was placed in her glass coffin. Needless to say, my vengeance lasted for all of a day or two before David found her and woke her up."

"And did you tell your Snow any of what your life was like with the King?" Snow asked after a moment.

Regina looked affronted as she hotly remarked, "Of course not! What kind of person~?" She took a moment to compose herself before she continued, "What purpose would it have served to hurt her like that? To know what kind of animal her father was behind closed doors? To know I was in a living hell for six hears of my life as I grew fully into a woman? Even now I would never say these things to her. I was a monster, dear, but I had my limits. Let her have her perfect delusion about her father. It's not like I'll ever see her again anyway. It was very much a one way trip to Auradon for me."

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"Oh Regina," Snow lamented as tears fell from her eyes.

"Honey?" David asked as she tried to comfort his wife.

"She still cared," Snow all but wailed as she buried her face into his shoulder and sobbed. "Don't you see? Even as she was cursing me she tried to protect me from the truth, David. I gave up on her after seeing that village and she still tried to protect me in some small way. The real Regina, my Regina, was still there drowning inside and I just gave up on her. Oh Stepmama."

Nobody else knew what to say as Snow continued to sob, occasionally mewling out something that sounded like an apology to Regina for her time with Leopold, or a self-recrimination for not seeing it when she had the chance to save her as the emotional dam within her broke.

"Majesty, you couldn't have saved her," Neal finally cut in. The room grew deathly silent as the all turned their attention to him. "Papa needed her to cast the curse. He had no idea she was his daughter and she was his choice to cast it. He never would have let anyone save her from that path. If you could have stopped her, he would have killed you to keep breaking her."

"I really hate your dad, Neal," Emma commented from where she was still holding on to Henry.

"You've never really met him, Em. Just the corrupted thing that was left behind by the power of the Dark One. Trust me, the man here in town is a thousand times closer to the person he was when I was a kid than the Imp he had become when I fell into the portal in the Enchanted Forest. And I still wouldn't trust him as far as I would throw him. Having Belle in his life and finding me did a lot to bring the man out of him again. Finding Regina would probably do even more, but as long as he's the Dark One that other side of him will be there fighting to get out and ready to ruin anyone that stands in his way," Neal warned.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"Was there ever a point where you thought you could make peace with your Snow?" Auradon's Snow asked after a pause.

Regina looked somewhat wistful as she replied, "Just once. I had used magic to disguise myself and was going through one of the villages in the kingdom to get a better feel for what the people thought of me. I was using the alias Wilma of all things when I was accosted by two of my own soldiers and appeared like I was about to be attacked. I was moments away from revealing myself and putting them both messily in their place for daring to treat any woman like that, much less their Queen, when Snow saved me from them. She tended to me gently and tried to comfort me. For the life of me I don't know what prompted me to do it but I traveled with her all day, asking probing questions similar to the one you just asked me of whether there could ever be real peace between us. She seemed open to the idea, almost wistfully eager, until she encountered a village I had destroyed recently for openly harboring her. She informed me there was no redemption for the Evil Queen. That she thought the woman was beyond help. I never bothered to reveal myself and parted ways from her on somewhat friendly terms. If not for that village, maybe we could have found some kind of understanding between us. Then again, knowing what I do now about Rumple's true reasons for wanting me to cast his curse, I doubt it. He needed me to be a monster as bad as he was to cast it. He never would have risked his ultimate plan to reach his child. Honestly, it's one of the few things I can respect about him. You can't say he isn't beyond devoted to his family."

"So you said you traded the Dark Curse away, I assume you got it back?" Snow probed after a moment.

"Yes, but not without a fight. I went to get it back the evening of Snow and David's wedding after making a rather dramatic entrance at the reception to warn them I was going to cast it and destroy their happiness. I wanted them to worry day and night about what was coming for them because I knew once it was cast they would have no idea who they really were. I rode straight from the reception to Maleficent's castle and insisted that since her curse failed our bargain was broken and she should return the Dark Curse to me. She tried to warn me how bad the Dark Curse was, that if I cast it, it would create a hole in my heart I could never fill. I refused to listen.

Instead I engaged her in a small magic fight where I used her pygmy unicorn as a distraction to bind her in metal straps from her own chandelier and leave her chained to the wall. She still tried to warn me that my choice would not be worth it but I collected the Curse from where she had hidden it in the top of her staff and ignored her warning. Looking back she was probably the only one that still cared about me beyond my father. As I prepared to leave she told me that if I planned to kill her to just get it over with and I recall being genuinely shocked. I think I said something like 'Why would I kill you? You're my only friend,' before I teleported back to my carriage and rode off. I knew full well she'd be free in less than an hour with her natural strength as a dragon, never mind her magic, and I didn't want to risk hurting her in another fight for the spell," Regina recalled.

"From there it was months of preparation as I rebuilt some of my grandfather's holdings that I had claimed from Midas when I still ruled the White Kingdom and used that as my seat of power while getting everything ready for the Curse. Sometime before their wedding Snow and Charming had captured Rumple and placed him in a special cell in the Dwarf mines sealed with squid ink to keep him from using his powers to escape. He was still playing us all for suckers then and I'm sure they had no clue that I visited him at least half a dozen times to either taunt him or pick his brain. He told me of a prophesied Savior that could end my curse and heavily implied it was Snow's unborn child. I tried to circumvent it by casting the curse before she gave birth but it failed," Regina continued.

"Why did it fail?" Snow asked.

"I didn't make enough of a sacrifice. I had used the heart of my prized stallion, Rocinante, the last living tie I had to Daniel, but it wasn't enough. I was fond of the steed and what he reminded me of, but losing him wouldn't destroy me. It was a minor miracle he was still alive after all that time and I suspect my own magic played a role in it. I remember going to Rumple demanding to know what was wrong and him snarling at me for being a fool. He refused to tell me what I did wrong unless I made a deal to do him one favor, and favor, as long as he said 'please' first. He'd later use that to try to kill me with a Wraith in Storybrooke, but I'll get to that later. He informed me that the sacrifice was too small. That nothing short of... the heart of the one person I still loved would be enough," Regina admitted.

"Your father," Snow supplied sadly.

Regina had tears in her eyes as she nodded in agreement and continued, "I returned to my castle and explained what I had learned to him. I remember crying as he tried to convince me to just leave this all behind and find some other way. But we both knew I wouldn't. I was so far beyond reason at that point the Curse seemed like my only chance. I sobbed as I told Daddy all I wanted was to just be happy and he hugged me tenderly, like he did when I was a child. I looked in his eyes and... he knew. He knew I would need his heart and he didn't run away. He didn't try to fight me. He just offered himself up to help me find one last chance at happiness. I took his heart and used it to cast my Dark Curse, destroying the last person to truly love me in the world to do it.

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_ Well that's about as good a place to stop as I can think of. There will be a short part discussing Storybrooke through Season One up to the arrival in Auradon and some discussion of Regina's life there to end the interview parts. After that we get to the meat of things as the people in Storybrooke try to get to Regina to "bring her home," the Neverland arc of OuaT with the VK's added to the mix, and an interlude in Auradon before finally confronting Cora and Zelena again.

As always, your reviews and PM's with comments, criticisms, and suggestions are the fuel that keep this going for me. I look forward to your input. And yes, you will see Uma, Harry, Gil, and Dizzy, as well as Freddie and CJ as the story progresses, but some of their roles will be altered since this story ends up supplanting some of the major plot points for Descendants 2.

Until next time.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Auradon**_

"And with the Dark Curse cast, it created your town of Storybrooke, is that right?" Snow asked as she gave and encouraging smile that, quite honestly, made Regina's flesh crawl. It was the kind of forgiving and supportive smile she would expect to see on Mary Margaret's face. A reminder of a home she no longer had in a realm that Regina decided she was no longer welcome within.

"That's right. Although I did make a last ditch effort to stop the prophecy made that Snow and Charming's newborn daughter would be the Savior to end the curse. I took my troops and mounted a massive offensive while my Snow was giving birth. Looking back it was almost tragically ironic that the panic of the oncoming curse was such a distraction that we routed Snow's forces and took the Castle with minimal fuss. I could have just summoned the illusion of a big purple cloud and ended the whole thing then and there, really. But hindsight is truly 20/20, I suppose," Regina noted.

"Anyway the Blue Fairy, my Snow's Fairy Godmother as well as Pinocchio's, had worked with Geppetto to make a wardrobe out of a magical tree that would send two people to the Land Without Magic before the curse hit, thus protecting them. I have to assume that Snow initially intended to go through herself while she was still pregnant to give birth to Emma there but my attack changed those plans. I refuse to believe that she would have been callous enough or naive enough to think it acceptable to send a newborn to an unknown realm basically alone. She was NOT that stupid," Regina continued only to be interrupted.

"If two people could go why didn't I, or your Snow rather, go with her after the birth?" Snow asked.

"Geppetto's price for helping to create the wardrobe was to send his son, Pinocchio, through as well to protect him from the curse. He ended up acting as something of an occasional guardian to guide Emma under the alias August Booth until her 28th birthday when she was meant to come to break the curse. Although he wasn't at her side very often from what I understand," Regina explained.

"And this Blue Fairy wasn't the Fairy Godmother that is current headmistress of Auradon Prep?" Snow asked.

"Hardly. I wouldn't be able to stand working with her, much less coming to see her as something of a friend here in Auradon, if she were any version of Reul Ghorm. If I had to make a guess as their ages are quite different, I'd say the Fairy Godmother might be a much happier version of Nova, another Fairy under Blue's rule. Although I'll admit to not knowing nearly as much about fairy society as Rumple did. He made it a habit to find and destroy fairies where he could and collect their wands. I'd say he had almost a pathological resentment of them, but knowing Blue was directly responsible for him losing his son, I suppose that makes sense," Regina speculated.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"I guess that does make a kind of sick sense," Emma pointed out.

"Trust me, Em, Papa has plenty of reasons to hate and distrust several fairies. What Blue did to us wasn't all of it," Neal replied.

"What do you mean?" Henry asked, upset at the thought his grandfather had a deep seated hatred of something Henry saw as a symbol of good.

"Just trust me, Henry. Papa collected a lot of records of fairies doing things people wouldn't like. They're not all as clean as their reputations make them out to be," Neal replied with a scowl.

* * *

From the back room of Mr Gold's Pawn Shop Belle bristled from what she heard coming out of the mirror enchanted to watch the Charming apartment. "Does he know, Rumple?" she asked as she heard Neal's statement. As far as she knew she was the only one to know the truth of her True Love's mother.

She had been somewhat against Rumple using a mirror to spy on the Charmings as they tried to look in on Regina that night when they had learned of the plan from Neal, but Rumple had shrugged and said it was their own fault if they were foolish enough to assume his wards to keep Cora from watching them did anything to restrict the Dark One himself when he was trying to find his missing daughter.

She also knew what they had learned thus far from Regina's interview had cut Rumple deeply. Not so much Neal's distrust of him, the Dark One expected that after their past together, but to hear Regina's story from her own point of view and to realize how much she saw her unknown father as the villain in that story hurt him. Then again, when your parents turned out to be Peter Pan and the Black Fairy, both of whom abandoned you before you could hope to bond with either of them, you understood the pain of truly horrible parents.

"No, Belle, he's not aware that... creature is his grandmother, thank goodness. And I would be very glad if neither he nor Regina ever saw the Black Fairy in person," Rumple assured her. "But he has seen my notes on how various fairies have unjustly punished people for the pettiest of reasons while searching through my collection for a way to find Regina. I did a lot of research into them in the years before I met you. It was something of a hobby of mine, for obvious reasons."

"To learn more about your mother," Belle noted.

"She doesn't deserve that title, Belle. She never did. Don't forget she abandoned me before she even named me. And I'll be damned if she or any other fairy ever harms my children again," Rumple swore.

Belle just gave him a reassuring smile as she hugged her Beast from behind, offering him what comfort she could as they continued to watch Snow's apartment with nobody within the wiser.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"But getting back on topic, we had taken Snow's Castle and David had been gravely injured defending Emma from my most elite soldiers, something I was incapable of since Rumple had enchanted them so that I could never directly harm them again so long as we were in the Enchanted Forest," Regina began.

"Why would he do that?" Snow asked in confusion.

"Because he needed to play both sides against the middle to ensure the Curse was cast, dear. If I won I didn't need it. If Snow and David won I wouldn't have been able to cast it. He needed us right where we were to the last moment," Regina explained. "Anyway, David put up a valiant enough defense to impress even my top men as he fought to ensure Emma was sent off to her destiny, just as Rumple intended. Still, I felt I had won as the Curse came and ripped the castle around us apart before everything went black.

The next thing I knew I was waking up in a bed in a world I knew nothing about. I looked out the window and saw a place like nothing I had ever seen before. I had gone from a world of horses and carriages to one of cars and trucks. Torchlight had been replaced with electricity. You could control the temperature of your house with the touch of a button without any magic at all," Regina recalled fondly.

"So the Land Without Magic had technology and amenities similar to modern day Auradon?" Snow asked.

"Not quite as advanced, perhaps thirty or so years behind if the progression of technology here had been from direct innovation rather than the adaptation of magic from the combined realms and kingdoms. But it was still quite a shock," Regina explained.

"I can only imagine," Snow agreed.

Regina let a sardonic smile adorn her face as she recalled, "And I was the only one there with no idea what anything was or what was going on around me. After all, everyone caught in the Curse was given false memories of that world, but as the caster I wasn't quite so lucky. Still I was elated to have succeeded in my revenge, and excited to explore this new world in what was essentially a new kingdom I had created."

"What did you do first?" Snow asked.

"Honestly, marveled at my clothes. They were just so... light. And well made as well. They were like nothing I had ever seen in the Enchanted Forest. No corsets, or lacing, or any of the other hassles I had dealt with my entire life. I couldn't get dressed fast enough to get out and survey the town that was to be my Happy Ending. Although I was unnerved by the people actually saying hello to me on the street. I had spent years being the Evil Queen everyone expected me to be. It was something of a switch to be treated like an actual person again for the first time in years," Regina noted before her eyes grew sad, "Not that I was all that good at it then."

"What do you mean?' Snow asked.

"Nothing. It's just... the curse created Storybooke in an uninhabited patch of wilderness in a State called Maine that was part of the nation of the United States of America. There were no permanent residents there, but there had been a father and son camping where the town suddenly sprang up around them," Regina recalled.

"That must have been quite a shock for them," Snow noted.

"Very much so. And the son, Owen, was adorable. I had come to regret taking the potion that denied me the chance to have a child of my own almost immediately after I had taken it. I had even tried to convince some children to be my heirs in the Enchanted Forest, although none of them would want anything to do with the Evil Queen. I saw this boy as my chance to start making my happy ending. And his father was reasonably attractive. As foolish as it sounds I thought the curse was providing me with a ready made family," Regina remembered with a sad shake of her head.

"I take it things did not work out that way?" Snow asked.

"Not at all. The child liked me well enough but his father had enough sense to see the wrongness of the town around them and took the first opportunity to get himself and his son away from me and Storybrooke both. He got them to the town line and made sure to get Owen out of there before I could stop him," Regina replied. "But, you must understand that Storybooke had a barrier written into it similar to the anti-magic barrier surrounding the Isle of the Lost. It was meant to keep everyone from the Enchanted Forest in because they were convinced they never wanted to leave, and people that visited from outside would forget the town and have a hard time finding it again. Taking the child over the town line... well you might as well have put him on the moon from what I understood of the Curse then. When he returned later with the authorities to find his father he couldn't even see the town from the border. And I was still very much the Evil Queen then. I was incensed that my orders were ignored. I ordered his father dealt with by Graham, just like I would have in the old world, and the put it out of my mind."

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"And there's the Regina we all remember," David noted sourly.

"What, you expected her to become a totally new person in all of a few days after casting the Curse? I mean she sacrificed her father for that, David. I don't think she was exactly sane at that point," Emma replied with a shake of her head.

"No. She was still very angry and bitter then. Not that we really felt the passage of time, but with the curse broken you could look back and realize it was a few years before you saw less of Her Majesty and more of Madam Mayor in the way she carried herself," Ruby pointed out. After all, she had literally been serving the mayor coffee and salads for nearly three decades during the curse. And she now remembered that first year or two when Regina would come in daily to eat as she likely had no idea of how to cook for herself without cursed memories.

"And technically, Prince Henry Sr. wasn't her father," Snow weakly protested.

"Bull," Emma snorted. "He raised her. He loved her as his own. If how Regina saw it is anywhere close to true he was willing to give her his heart to help her find happiness. If that isn't a Dad I don't know what is. All Gold ever did was sleep with Cora."

"Papa would have loved her, Emma. He even loved Cora then. The fact he was willing to alter their deal to convince her to run away with him was pretty much unheard of. She hurt him bad when she chose power over him," Neal riposted.

"Yeah, well nobody is doubting Cora is a crappy human being in general," Emma conceded.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"And once things had settled, what did you think of your new town?" Snow asked, unwilling to go into detail about how the man was dealt with. She was from a world of absolute monarchs where common thieves were regularly executed by hanging until Auradon was created. Neither she, nor any other citizen of the Realm, had any illusions about what Regina meant with that statement.

"For the first couple of years I honestly felt like I was waiting for the proverbial other show to drop. I expected someone the recall something at attack me at every turn. But once it became clear that the Dark Curse was stable I started trying to integrate myself into the world we found ourselves in. I discovered correspondence schools, first by mail and then later through the internet, to soak up the educational material of the Realm and began earning several different collegiate degrees. I taught myself from the ground up what it would take to be the mayor of the town even if the nature of the Curse meant I would never be anything else to the people," Regina explained.

"That must have been another big change for you," Snow commented.

"Not as much as you would think. I was always somewhat studious in nature and learning magic from Rumple involved knowing several disciplines from math and chemistry for alchemy and potion making, to learning exotic languages like Elvish to read different spell books. This was just learning the topics of a new world and I welcomed the challenge of it. Especially since we were frozen in time in Storybrooke," Regina replied.

"So you were just living the same day over and over again?" Snow asked. This was something that had honestly confused her in the reports she had read and wanted to know more about it.

"Not exactly. I wasn't attending the same budget meetings for 28 years, and people were aware of things like the changing of the seasons. People didn't do the exact same thing from minute to minute every day. But at the same time, they didn't notice the passage of time either. They just didn't think about things that should have raised questions, like the fact the pregnant women in town were never getting any closer to delivery, or that the children in the schools never advanced from one grade to the next each autumn. They certainly never noticed that none of us grew any older. It was more like Storybrooke was just a sleepy little town where nothing changes, except we didn't age," Regina elaborated.

"That must have been better than living the same day over and over again," Snow noted.

"Slightly," Regina conceded sardonically. "But after a time it still came to feel more like a prison of my own making than my happy ending. Maleficent had been right, casting the Curse had created a hole in my heart that I had no idea of how to fill. Even as paranoia gave way to tranquility and unfamiliarity of the town settled into routine, I could feel something was still missing. Or maybe I was finally seeing that something had always been missing now that I no longer had Rumple and my mother hissing in my ears and my Snow standing there opposing me."

"And what happened to your Snow during the Curse?" Snow asked.

"She, like everyone else, was given a new identity with a new name and history. In Storybooke she was an Elementary School teacher. And, I'd never let her hear this as I could never live it down, but she was rather good at it. I could see after observing her over the years that she had a knack for working with children related to her natural sense of empathy for everyone that wasn't me," Regina confided with a hint of sarcasm. "Although I did get tired of seeing her task the children with making the same birdhouses year after year."

"She taught them to make birdhouses? How wonderful," Snow noted with a happy smile.

Regina looked like she had swallowed something unpleasant as she nodded and replied, "She had always been able to talk to birds and other woodland creatures in a manner similar to yourself, dear. And just as with you they could understand her and even respond to a limited degree. I suspect she and you both have some kind a latent magical talent related to the ability. A deeper connection to nature than most posses."

Snow looked surprised as she noted, "I never really thought about it that way."

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"Neither did I," Ruby said as she looked over at her Snow only to notice how dumbfounded she appeared to be. "Snow?" Ruby asked in concern.

Henry looked at his grandmother for a moment before snickering as he commented, "I think Grandma is still trying to get over Mom saying she's a good teacher."

"Just imagine how Regina would feel if she knew we heard her," Emma pointed out with a mischievous smile.

As for Mary Margaret, she just sat there in quiet shock as one more secret was revealed to her about what went on in Regina's head.

 _ **Auradon**_

* * *

"Yes, well, things went on relatively the same for nearly eighteen years with only my classes, and a few forays out of town once I had a better understanding the the mechanics of the Curse and what I could do within its limits as the caster, to break things up. The hole in my heart seemed to grow more and more and I was reminded that just because those around me had different lives, it didn't mean I was any closer to being happy. Daniel was still dead. The people in town were intimidated by me even if they no longer remembered that they hated me. I couldn't even try to talk to Maleficent as she was in dragon form when the curse hit and ended up sealed in a cave beneath the town library. I was more alone than I had ever been," Regina recalled. "But then I realized that even if I was alone there, I was also free. My mother had no way to reach me in a place where she would have no magic. And I mistakenly thought Rumple had himself changed into a new person during the curse. He didn't and I should have known better because he was was its creator, but I did always seem to let him get things past me."

"And what did you decide to do with that freedom?" Snow prodded.

Regina smiled warmly as she recalled, "I decided I was finally ready to be a mother. To love someone that I chose to love and not someone thrust upon me by circumstance. Someone that would never leave me and would never see me for the monster I had been. For him, I would just be 'Mom.' But, I was still permanently incapable of having a child of my own. And despite Graham, ahem, showing interest in me nothing could ever come of it. So I chose to adopt."

"And that is where you got your son?" Snow asked.

"Indeed," Regina agree. "And I named him Henry Daniel Mills after the two men that meant the most to me in my life. The two best men I ever knew."

"I can see you care a great deal for him," Snow pointed out sympathetically.

"Of course. I love him with all my heart. He, quite literally, brought the light back into my life. I think I had forgotten what love even felt like until I held him in my arms for the first time. I could feel the world become a better place from the moment I looked at him. My Little Prince," Regina agreed wistfully.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

Henry had tears in his eyes as he heard his mother talking to this other Snow White about how much she loved him. She wasn't playing at anything because she was an entire world away and had no idea anyone from home could hear her. These were just her honest feelings about him. She loved him.

"Mom," he whispered sadly as his heart began to hurt at the thought that this might be the closest he could ever come to seeing her again.

"We'll bring her back Henry. I promise you'll see her again," Snow swore with a look of determination. She better that anyone else understood what the boy must be feeling in that moment. Despite all that had come between them over the years, there was still a part of Snow White that desperately wanted Regina home where she belonged.

The rest of the people in the room chose to remain quiet rather than voice their misgivings about searching for Regina without knowing what they were getting into.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"But, of course even that peace had to be... interfered with. You see, Henry was actually the newborn son of Emma Swan, Snow and David's missing daughter," Regina added with narrowed eyes. "I should have known better than to go to Rumple to arrange the adoption, but he was really the only one in town with the proper connections to do it when I as going to be a single mother. He needed to me to adopt her son to bring her to Storybrooke when she reached 28 as stated in the prophecy and break his curse so he could find and collect his missing son."

"And did Henry's destiny change how you felt about him?" Snow asked.

"Not in the slightest. I suppose it might have given me pause if I had learned it when he was a newborn rather than when he was ten, but even then I probably would have sacrificed some of the few magical artifacts I had carried over to make a memory potion and make myself forget who his mother was than anything. Henry was my child. That was all that mattered to me," Regina insisted. Her expression bordered on murderous as she spat, "At least that was all that mattered until he was given that accursed _book_ by Mary Margaret."

"And what book was that?" Snow asked to keep the interview going.

"It was titled _Once Upon a Time_ and it held an anthology of all the stories from the Enchanted Forest. Well, no, that isn't true. It held the stories of the heroes from only their points of view. You never would have heard about Daniel's death and Snow's part in it, or how Rumple needed to darken my heart so I could cast his curse. You wouldn't even hear he was only trying to find his missing child. All you got was the half of the story needed to paint anyone considered a villain in the worst possible light. Not that we didn't deserve it. I might have had it rough but I was no saint, either, and I accept that fact. I was an angry and vengeful woman," Regina explained.

"It probably didn't help that Henry acquired the accursed thing after I had told him of his adoption and he was starting to feel isolated an abandoned," she continued. "Things just got tenser for us after that. I stopped being 'Mom' and just became the Evil Queen plotting against everyone in town to him. It was like I wasn't even a person to him anymore. He started obsessing over the stories in the book, pulling away from the few friends he had in school. Although I could understand that when he was the only one in town aging and he was getting old enough to notice it. To be honest, telling him about the adoption was the first step I was going to take in telling him about the nature of the town. I was just waiting until he would be old enough to understand. But destiny ensured I never had that chance."

"What happened?" Snow asked.

"Like clockwork, on her 28th birthday Henry got it in his head to find his _real_ mother, Emma Swan. He had tracked her down online and stole Mary Margaret's credit card to get a bus ticket to a town a couple of hundred miles away called Boston to retrieve her. She brought him back to me, getting her to town, and things just snowballed from there," Regina recalled with a shake of her head.

"What do you mean?" Snow asked.

"Like a fool I panicked as Henry declared he had found his real mother and she was the Savior that would break the curse. It didn't help that Ms Swan and I had naturally conflicting personalities. Let's say she grew up rough where I was taught to be refined. She said she wanted to leave as soon as Henry was back safe, but we were sizing up each other like two alpha wolves looking to take control of a pack from day one. I did everything in my power to annoy her and convince her to leave town and never look back, and she would only grow more irritated and stay longer to spite me. Once she got a room at the local Inn I was convinced she was there to try to ruin my life," Regina explained.

"And what was life like once Miss Swan arrived?"

"Annoying. She would provoke me verbally, so I had Graham arrest her on trumped up changes to get her thrown out of the Inn. Which in turn convinced her to room with her unknown mother instead. I had her car booted for being parked illegally. She cut off the limb of my apple tree with a chainsaw. The very same one Daddy had gifted to me as a little girl. Things only escalated from there. In fact I recall we got into a fistfight one evening in front of my family crypt after I had gone to visit Daddy and Daniel," Regina elaborated.

"But destiny would not be thwarted. Miss Swan needed to break my curse as she was literally born to do exactly that. She ended up quickly befriending Graham and he hired her on a deputy. That annoyed me as it felt she was trying to take more of my life from me after ingratiating herself to Henry. But it only got worse later."

"How did it get worse?" Snow inquired.

"Well, Emma has her own magic as a product of True Love and a destined savior. As a result she could affect some enchanted items unconsciously, like Graham's heart where it was kept in my family crypt, if she got too close to it. He started to remember his real self and I panicked. Rather than have him expose me further I crushed his heart to save myself. That was the last life I ever took as the Evil Queen, fulfilling his life debt he had sworn to me when he refused to kill my Snow. Although I don't know how she would have felt about the fact he and Miss Swan seemed to be getting physical with each other at that point. That was just a bit inappropriate.

"But, I digress. With Graham dead there was an election held and circumstances had Emma Swan elected as the new Sheriff instead of Sidney who was running at my direction. Things in town continued to devolve between us as Miss Swan and I sniped at each other. Eventually, I got it in my head that the only way to save Henry and win him back to to get Emma out of the way. So... I sacrificed the last thing I had with any magic, the engagement band Daniel had given me and the bit of True Love between us that resonated with it, to summon the same Apple I had used to cast the sleeping curse just after my Snow had bitten it. I used it to make an apple turnover, dead set on putting Emma to sleep so she couldn't take Henry from me. Needless to say, like many panic reactions before it, that plan backfired spectacularly," Regina noted with a sense of self-recrimination.

"What happened?" Snow asked sadly.

Regina was clearly holding back tears as she hung her head and admitted, "Henry saw through the ploy and ate the turnover instead to make Emma believe in the truth of Storybooke. He took the sleeping curse and its awful side effects for himself to save the Savior."

"I'm sorry, Lady Regina, do you need a moment?" Snow asked.

Regina visibly composed herself as she chided, "I reminded your producer that you don't need to use titles with me, dear. Respect is earned, not given."

"Many would argue you've already earned it helping the people of the Isle by discovering the thefts of provisions and other wrongdoings," Snow argued.

"Perhaps, but regardless, Ms Mills is fine. And I would rather get the rest of the story out to discuss things here in Auradon. We don't need to wait," Regina insisted.

"Very well," Snow conceded.

"Now where was I? Ah yes, Henry was under the sleeping curse. Anyway, Miss Swan and I learned the hard way that without some magic in town there would be no way to awaken Henry with True Love's Kiss so we were forced to go to Mr Gold, Rumple's Storybrooke identity. And before anything else I have to point out that Rumple is not King Adam, but he is the Beast in my world's version of the story, as well as the crocodile that took Hooks hand, and god only knows how many other identities. But, I had learned some time ago that Rumple was aware of his true self, and I had wanted to twist the knife, so to speak, so I told him of how I had imprisoned his True Love, Belle, in my tower after he sent her away from him when she nearly broke his curse as the Dark One and removed his powers with True Love's Kiss. After the Curse she had been living in the town mental hospital with no memories at all instead of crafting a new life for her. Not that it would have been all that bad for her to live that way as she had no more notion of the passage of time during the curse than anyone else. The only one it hurt was him as he missed 28 years of being with her and he knew it. But he was willing to tell us about a vial of True Love magic he had distilled and had hidden in Maleficent's belly before the curse. I had to give him credit, he gave as good as he got as he knew I would have to help her kill my oldest remaining friend to save my son. He gave Swan her father's sword and I led her to her destiny as she slew the dragon, only for Gold to steal the vial and use it to bring magic to Storybrooke itself within the boundaries of the barrier surrounding the town. Which in turn allowed Emma to use True Love's Kiss, the kiss of a mother's love, to awaken Henry and also break the Dark Curse in the sense of restoring everyone's memories."

"I don't imagine that went well with people," Snow commented.

"No. I told Henry goodbye, letting him know that whatever he heard I still loved him and always would, and returned home to wait for the end. Even with magic back in town my own magic had not returned at that point and I had no illusions about what the townsfolk had in store for me. Hell, I had been having nightmares about Swan decapitating me in front of her family, including Henry, for months. I... I have to believe he didn't know what defeating me meant. That it would and should have been a death sentence for me. I have to believe that," Regina insisted.

"I'm sure he didn't realize how people might react," Snow tried to assure her. "But what happened after the curse was broken?"

"A mob showed up at my door, and the only reason I didn't end up killed by that hypocrite Frankenstein as the leader of the mob was Miss Swan saving me. She locked me in holding cells at the Sheriff station to keep me safe until things calmed down. Not that it helped," Regina noted bitterly. "Rumple had no intention of letting me off for keeping him from Belle even if she made him promise not to come after me. He had a potion to make me the target for a wraith he had summoned. I refused at first, but he threatened Henry, and then the bastard said 'please.' With the agreement we had made before the Curse was cast I had no choice as marked myself for a fate worse than death. It was only through the efforts of Miss Swan and her parents that I survived."

"What did you do to stop the wraith?" Snow asked.

"Well, dear, I still had Jefferson's hat from when I had rescued Daddy before the curse. I had thought at the time that all of the Enchanted Forest was destroyed. I thought that, with Emma's magic that we could open a portal and send the creature to literal oblivion," Regina recalled.

"And did it work?" Snow inquired.

"Not exactly. As it turned out my Mother had returned to the Enchanted Forest and protected part of it from the Curse just as it hit. And Miss Swan and my Snow had the misfortune of getting caught in the portal back to that part of the Enchanted Forest, although the wraith itself seemed to have been destroyed in the effort, regardless.

* * *

 _ **Author's Notes:**_ Okay this ended up taking more time than I thought. The next part will be the end of the interview including some talk of Regina's time in Auradon and some reactions to her story from people watching it besides those in Storybrooke. Then we can get back to the meat of things.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Auradon**_

"So your Snow and her daughter were back in the Enchanted Forest?" Snow asked with interest.

"Yes. All in all they were trapped there for a couple of weeks with David and I forming something of a tense alliance to recover them. I owed Emma that much at least for saving me and not handing me over to the mob at my doorstep and it was what Henry wanted," Regina explained.

"Were you still in danger from the general townsfolk at this time?" Snow inquired with a hint of worry.

Regina smiled sardonically as she replied, "For all of a day or two, perhaps. I had the most rudimentary access to my magic, but my control was shot and it was like I hadn't practiced at all in years, which I suppose was the truth. Like the novice that once braved meeting Maleficent I could barely light a candle one time in ten and it was frustrating me. Especially since I needed my magic to help me recover Emma and Ms Blanchard. But I knew what I would need to do to jump start it and sync myself with the odd flow of magic in Storybrooke."

"And what was that?" Snow wondered.

"Rumple had a spellbook of my mother's in his possession. One in which she had laced a few pages with special ink infused with her blood and magic. It was a kind of trap Rumple taught her to lay against people that would try to steal her secrets. The blood magic would act as kind of poison to anyone that tried to tap into it not related to her. But to me, her daughter, it was just what I needed to jump start myself and acclimate to things," Regina reported.

"And he just gave it to you?" Snow asked, well aware of the animosity between them.

"Well it was mine by blood right and even the Dark One respects such obligations. And for all that we've tried to harm each other Rumple always did seem oddly tolerant with me. I assume it was because I reminded him of my mother when he trained her. He certainly had a snide little comment of how much I was acting like her when he finally gave me the book. But I suppose he saw the value in having me able to draw attention away from him in town. I certainly wasn't going to let anyone intimidate me when I finally had the power to fight back," Regina informed her.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

Belle looked to Rumple's face in concern as he listened to Regina's interview with deep interest through a mirror spying on the Charming loft. "Rumple?" she asked.

"That wasn't it. Not exactly, anyway. I could always see the differences between Regina and Cora. I teased her about them, but I never thought they were all that alike. I assumed she just took after that simpering fool Henry and it counteracted some of Cora's nastier traits. Turns out I should have been looking for a little more of me in her," Rumple recalled aloud.

"You didn't know. And when you find her you can try to repair things between you," Belle tried to assure him.

"Can I, Belle? I'll admit most of the better things about her, the ones she showed raising Henry, she learned from her... stepfather. But her ability to hold a grudge? That Regina definitely inherited from me," Rumple noted with a sad shake of his head.

"You can't give up hope, Rumple. You're family. You, Regina, and Baelfire. That has to mean something," Belle insisted.

"Did you know that I held Regina when she was only hours old?" Rumple recalled. "I had popped in that first night after Cora went to sleep and held her in my arms, telling that perfect, innocent little baby girl all my terrible plans to make her the Evil Queen one day. And even as I sneered and scoffed she just watched me with wide eyes and reached up like she wanted me to hold her close and comfort her. Me, that disgusting imp that I was in the Old World," Rumple reminisced.

"Hey, I happen to love that 'disgusting imp'. And the man behind him," Belle noted with a sly smile.

"Part of me wanted to take her with me that night. To fulfill Cora's original contract and raise Regina for myself even if we had changed the deal. Now I can't help but wonder if part of me still suspected the truth but was too stubborn to admit it? Despite how I hate the Black Fairy I can't deny Regina has my mother's hair and eyes. If I had only seen, only let myself believe... I could have raised my daughter myself. Saved her from that witch using her as a glorified showpiece," Rumple lamented.

"You can't wonder over the past. You can only try to improve the future," Belle assured him as she moved in to embrace her True Love.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"So your mother's spellbook worked to jump start your magic?" Snow asked.

"Yes. I blew on one of the protected pages and inhaled the rising dust. I could immediately feel it resonating with me as my magic came back fully. Even my apple tree, which has been rotting and dying as a result of its connection to me, was fully restored, the apples becoming red and vibrant again," Regina recalled.

"And what did you do with you rediscovered magic?" Snow inquired.

"Made and ass out of myself," Regina noted sassily. "I had it in my head that now that I had my powers, David and the rest of the town wouldn't be able to keep me from my son. And since most everyone in town was at a meeting to discuss Snow and Emma's disappearance, I took it as an opportunity to let them know I was back to my old self."

"What did you do?" Snow asked with a note of worry.

"Talked a big game and tossed a few people around with my magic. Nothing that hurt anybody but enough to show them I was no longer vulnerable. I suppose it really showed the difference between who I am now and who I was as the Evil Queen that I was so careful not to hurt anyone. Not that they'd notice over their panicking about me having my magic. I even went so far as to snatch a bolt the Widow Lucas had fired next to my head as a warning shot out of the air and incinerate it into a fireball, though all I did with it was make it dance around the room and make it ignite the town crest behind me to intimidate people. When they finally had the wherewithal to demand to know why I was there Henry knew it was to collect him and bring him home and my Little Prince bravely offered to return with me to protect them," Regina noted fondly.

"And did he stay with you?" Snow asked somberly.

"No. He had no intention of living with the Evil Queen. I tried everything I could think of to get in his good graces, offering him any magical gift I could think of like some cheap knockoff of the imp, but he wanted nothing to do with it. To him all magic was evil and he didn't want to touch it. It oddly echoed my own thoughts on my mother's magic as a child," Regina recalled.

"So you let him leave?" Snow prodded gently.

"Well, his idiot grandfather, and I say that wholly about David Nolan and not about your Florian when I call Charming and idiot, dear, but anyways David showed up sword in hand to try to threaten or kill me. I don't know which honestly, although I had him bound to the wall in tree branches I had summoned from the pattern in my wallpaper before he could move."

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"Again, why are you all not dead or in her dungeon in the Enchanted Forest?" Emma insisted as David ducked his head in embarrassment.

"Because she didn't want either of those things to happen long term, Emma," Neal noted.

"What do you mean, Dad?" Henry asked.

"Even if Cora and Poppa tried to hold her back your mom still inherited her magic from both of them. If she had wanted Queen Snow dead, she would have been. She wanted her to pay for what she saw as a deep betrayal. She wanted to see her punished. You can't do that with someone that's dead. It's why Poppa allows Hook to stay alive. He wants him to suffer for taking my mother and he won't give him the satisfaction of joining her in death," Neal noted. If anyone understood that thinking, it was the son of the Dark One.

But there was one doubter in the form of Snow White herself, who thought it might just be that there was still something too good in Regina to make her want to kill Snow and her friends.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"I mostly ignored whatever impotent threats the man offered before I informed him in no uncertain terms that he would care for my son and guard him with his life because if Henry was hurt under his care I would end him, Snow's husband or not. He was so confused he hung there speechless as I called up to Henry and told him to pack his things to spend time with his grandfather before I released the fool. I think that was really the start of our alliance to find Snow and Emma. The fact I would do what was best for Henry rather than myself threw him for a loop," Regina recalled.

"And how did the attempts to recover that world's Snow and Emma go?" Auradon's Snow White asked.

"Painfully uneventful for the most part. The one time David managed to track Jefferson down he claimed he couldn't create a new hat to help collect them, which was somewhat true I suppose. You can go anywhere one way with his hats, but you need to bring back the exact same number of people as left for a round trip. To get Mary Margaret and Emma, we would have needed to abandon two people in the remains of the Enchanted Forest. I can't see that kind of offer going over well with anyone. Especially when the only ones the town would want to leave, namely Rumple and I, were the only ones with enough magic to work the stupid hat if he did cobble a new one together," Regina snorted in derision.

But her face grew pained as she noted "But, eventually, we found a way to communicate with them. Even though it was dangerous."

"And what was that?" Snow prodded.

"Those that have been under the Sleeping Curse, at least our version of it, relive many of their worst memories. They can also end up mentally in a room apparently made of fire where they can talk to others that have been under the curse when they are asleep at the same time. But the room of fire can cause physical pain and worse if you go there too many times. But Henry and Snow had both been under the curse so he insisted on using it to work out a plan to get them back. It was fine at first, but eventually everything Rumple and I were doing to protect him started to fail. It was... hurting him. It could have eventually done much worse," Regina recalled with tears in her eyes.

"So what did you do?" Snow asked gently.

"Well, in the last message Henry could safely relay I had learned about my Mother's survival as she had just confronted and been driven off by Ms Blanchard and Ms Swan. Until that point, we had been planning a way for them to get hold of a magic bean to make a stable portal, and use the well where magic returned to Storybrooke as the entry point. There was more involving the wood from wardrobe used to originally transport Emma and the last drops of the waters of a magical lake, but that was the gist of things. The problem was that Rumple and I were quite certain my mother and Hook would find a way to trick Emma and Snow and would be the ones to come through the portal instead. And the thought of my Mother having access to Henry. No. I could never let that happen. So I helped Rumple to craft and cast a Death Curse over anyone that traveled through the well, hoping it would stop my mother. But Henry insisted it would be Emma and Snow. He... he convinced me to brew another Sleeping Curse of my own with Rumple's equipment and put David under its effects voluntarily to relay a change of plans to Snow. I still had my doubts... but Henry's heart is one with more belief than I thought possible. He convinced me to remove the curse. That David would not fail and it would be Emma and her mother coming through. He begged me to lift the curse but you can't just remove magic like that. It was Rumple's power combined with every bit of fairy dust he had managed to swipe from that insipid blue moth. But Henry was so certain so..." Regina trailed off.

"What did you do, Regina?" Snow asked.

"Prepared myself for death for the second time in as many weeks. I absorbed the Death Curse into myself. It should have killed me. To this day I have no idea why it didn't" Regina admitted with a furrowed brow. "But I had no choice. Henry needed his family. He would never forgive me if the Curse killed Emma and Snow, so all I could do was hope he was right and give him the family he wanted. The family of heroes he deserved instead of a broken villain of a mother. And he was right, it was Snow and Emma that came through the well."

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

The stunned silence that had settled into the Charming apartment spoke volumes. None of them had known what absorbing the curse on the well had meant, nor that Regina went to what she thought was her death without a second thought to make her son happy.

Emma silently vowed that if they ever did find a way to reach Regina, she would take a moment to thank her for all she did for the Kid. Then she might slap her upside the head for ever thinking her killing herself was what Henry would have wanted no matter the reason.

Neal gave a sad and proud smile. What Regina had done and been willing to do was what Rumple had failed to do for him. She was willing to give everything to see her child happy, no matter what. He would be very happy to know her when her finally met his sister.

As for Henry, he sat there crying silent tears, realizing he had asked his mother to go to her death without even knowing it, and she went there with a reassuring smile on her face for him.

* * *

 _ **Aurdon**_

"I know it wasn't long after their return that you come to Auradon, but there is one other incident to cover during the time they were missing that I wanted to cover for out viewers," Snow began with a tentative wince.

"Ah, yes. Victor's attempt to 'mend fences' with me once I had my magic back and he was afraid I would come looking for retribution over the mob he brought to my doorstep," Regina noted as she bit back a snarl at Frankenstein's name.

"Can you tell people what happened?" Snow prodded.

"Frankenstein decided the best way to placate me was to try to follow through on the promise he had made to me all those years ago. And so he managed to sneak into my mother's heart vault in the family mausoleum under the cover of night and steal what he believed to be the strongest heart there before using it in his horrible experiment to try to resurrect Daniel," Regina growled hatefully.

"And his efforts weren't what he expected, were they?" Snow continued.

Regina smiled nastily as she agreed, "No, they were not. Daniel, like the last person Frankenstein brought back came back... wrong. He literally ripped the fool's arm off and it was only by the grace of him conducting his foul little project in the hospital that Victor survived. Although the fairies did help with reattaching his arm after the fact with minimal fuss. But Daniel was... dangerous. I tried to stop him, to talk him down, but he ended up nearly hurting Henry when Henry encountered him in the town stables. David was going to destroy him but I begged for the chance to talk to him, to try to reach the man still in the monster. I asked David to lead Henry away and confronted Daniel. He... he started to choke me, but then it was like something broke and he recognized me. For a sweet moment he was my Daniel again."

Regina paused at the recollection as a tear fell unheeded from her eye. "But then he doubled over in terrible pain. He begged me to destroy him; to end his pain before he lost control of himself again and ended up hurting me or my son. I begged him to fight it, to stay with me, but he couldn't. So... I did what I had to and used my magic to completely destroy his body. I would never let Victor or anyone else profane his memory again. And as he died in my arms a second time, he smiled at me and made me promise to love again someday," she recounted as she fought to maintain some semblance of self-control.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

"Jesus," Emma whispered in sympathy for Regina. Just the idea of having to do something like that made Emma wonder how the former mayor wasn't a raving lunatic at this point?

"Oh Regina," Mary Margaret fretted in agreement, her heart all but bleeding for the pain her stepmother must have faced in that moment. And to know Regina likely felt she couldn't even find comfort in Henry. Well if Snow wasn't committed to getting her home before that certainly firmed her resolve. She needed to be there with her family whether Regina agreed with it or not.

"Rubes, I know he's a friend of yours and all, but remind me to punch Whale in the nose the next time I see him," Emma noted with a glare.

"I might just hold him in place for you," Ruby agreed with a disappointed shake of her head. All she could see in that moment was Peter in place of Daniel and it made Ruby's blood run cold at the thought.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

"Now that we have that bit of the story out of the way, what can you tell everyone about how you came here to Auradon?" Snow asked as she dried her own tears at Regina's tale.

Regina took another moment to compose herself, visibly seeming to seep into what Emma internally called her "Madam Mayor mode" before she replied, "Well it started literally right after we brought Snow and Ms Swan back to Storybrooke. After Snow revived Charming back at Rumple's shop, the Charming family decided to go to Granny's, the town diner, for a celebratory dinner and literally left me standing there on the street without a second thought. I was left on the outside looking in as Rumple tried to rile me with some insipid comment about how I risked myself to reunite a family and how if I was lucky maybe one day they would all invite me to dinner. I ignored the imp and was ready to head him and try to get on with my life when Jefferson found me. At first he looked ready to gloat, but when he saw me and why I was upset... he seemed to understand. We exchanged a few polite words before he offered me the chance to see something I could never have again in Storybrooke."

"And what was that?" She asked.

"He didn't say at first. He insisted on showing me and ushered me back to his workshop in his home. There he showed my me a new hat. One that apparently was meant to look in on Auradon. It seemed that since his daughter preferred to remain with her foster family until he was in a little more stable of a situation that for a time he had been checking other alternate realms for a place where they could be together. He had discovered Auradon quite by accident and while it didn't serve his purposes, he thought it could help me," Regina explained.

"And how did he think it could help you?" Snow asked.

Regina looked somewhat affronted as she replied, "Well bear in mind that the period we saw was just after Evie, Mal, Jay, and Carlos came here, back when your Maleficent was forcing them to comply with her half-witted scheme to get Fairy Godmother's wand and that all four of them were terribly depressed and conflicted as they had started making real friends here like King Ben, Doug, Lonnie, and Jane. They needed help at the time and were terribly vulnerable so Jefferson got it in his head that I could act as a mother for them, or at least for Evie, since Henry would never accept me again now that he had discovered his heroic roots. Honestly, the idea was offensive. It would be like your Queen of Hearts showing up and insisting she was my mother now instead of Cora. But in spite of myself I was intrigued. I kept the hat with me for a week and watched the realm in earnest, especially the... I believe the 'cool' term for the kids from the Isle now at Auradon Prep is 'VKs' as a shorthand for Villain Kids. Evie truly fascinated me as I knew I was permanently infertile thanks to the potion I had taken and I couldn't help but look for bits of Daniel in her features since her father here is unknown. But all I saw was a smart and determined young woman being torn apart by her mother's ridiculous plans and expectations, just like I had been. The same was true for Mal. Jay was just as run down. And the less said about how your Cruella treated Carlos, the better."

"So you were watching as Lady Mal and the other kids from the Isle chose good and banded together to fight Maleficent when she escaped during King Ben's coronation?" Snow inquired.

"Oh yes. And my Maleficent would have laughed herself hoarse at watching the kids bring that madwoman down. I don't think she would have had any better of an opinion of your Maleficent than I have of that... this is to say, than I have of Grimhilde. But yes, I watched all four of the kids make the right choice, the choice I failed to make when given the same chance over and over again at their age, and I cheered for them a little inside. But I also noted what I didn't see in Storybooke as well," Regina recalled.

"You never saw Henry?" Snow asked with a frown.

"Once or twice from a distance early in the week. But he never so much as looked at me. I didn't see or hear from anyone in town unless I made the effort to get my morning coffee from Granny's, actually. The whole town seemed content to ignore my very existence. And I realized something. Henry would be happy and cared for with his biological family. I could trust Ms Swan to watch him after knowing her for a year and seeing what type of woman she was. And I knew Snow would never let anything harm him either. And, more importantly, he didn't want or need me there as a shadow looming over his life. I was in the way of his happy ending and without my son, there was no happy ending to be found for me in Storybrooke. So I decided for once in my life to let the wrongs of the past go and try to move on. To be Regina instead of the Queen lording over those that betrayed her. To look for a place to start over where I could be happy too. And so I took Jefferson's offer and had him transport me here. Where I arrived with a rather undignified splash in a fountain on the Auradon Prep campus," Regina recounted.

"Yes, I recall it caused quite a stir as we thought you might have been Stepmama at first when the magical alarms and wards went off, and an even greater stir when we realized she was still on the Isle. Now, what can you tell the viewers about your early days here in Auradon?" Snow recalled.

"Well I appeared in front of Evie and Mal on their way between classes only to be whisked away to a heavily warded room that suppressed my magic and compelled me to tell the truth for a few days of interrogation. From there I was given temporary quarters as King Ben and the Royal Council tried to decide what to do with me. Eventually, it was decided, as I had committed no wrongs in Auradon and no intention of starting trouble, that I would make a good choice to look over certain... discrepancies about the supplies that had been sent to the Isle that were discovered when Mal and the other started opening up to their friends here about life on the Isle," Regina noted with a hard expression.

"Yes, it was certainly a shock to learn that not only were people on the Isle getting second had goods to make life easier, but somehow were getting spoiled food instead of fresh rations and at less the half the amount of what she have been given to them. Just the thought of the innocent children that had been born on the Isle living of of rotting garbage... well let me personally thank you for helping to discover the culprits," Snow agreed with an equally hard expression.

"Trust me, it was my pleasure. I can understand taking revenge against your direct enemies. But making the children there suffer? Never mind hapless sidekicks only imprisoned because they were too loyal to protest like Mr Smee. I mean the man had wanted Wendy Darling to be his mother when she was all of twelve. He's clearly got some kind of developmental disability and even the Lost Boys were afraid to try to hurt him because he was too nice and it would have been like hurting a child. I can respect his loyalty to Hook and refusal to leave his captain but you can not tell me he deserves to live in squalor. Every one of the various bands of thieves we found skimming from shipments and replacing the provisions with garbage deserved everything they got. They're lucky King Ben was merciful enough to not sent THEM to the Isle. I don't think a whole population of starving people living off of scraps for two decades would have been all that welcoming," Regina sneered with a wicked gleam in her eye.

"I would say not," Snow agreed. "And what went on after you had helped to track down the various issues with the provisions to the Isle?"

"Well, I had worked closely with Fairy Godmother and Queen Mother Belle, and they noted some of the administrative skills I had honed as mayor of Storybrooke for nearly three decades during the curse. In fact, being able to read a paper trail was how I found many of the thieves. And it as decided that since I have a unique perspective on former villains trying to adjust to a non-villainous life that I would make a good liaison and counselor for the kids from the Isle currently here, even if it's currently only six kids in total. Although that number is set to increase next term as the successes the original four kids have had integrating here has paved the way to ease the transition for other young people looking to leave the Isle of the Lost. After all, while their parents might be serving life sentences, they have committed no crimes and are still citizens of the realm. We're vetting the next group to come to Auradon Prep right now and working with other schools like Sherwood Academy, as well as smaller local schools, to start pilot programs of their own similar to AP's," Regina announced.

"That's wonderful news," Snow all but gushed. "Do you have any ideas as to who will be attending yet?"

"Not quite yet. We're in contact with Master Yen Sid as he still volunteers to teach science at Dragon Hall on the Isle and has a good idea of the personalities for some of the kids. And of course all of the original VK's have their suggestions, along with Freddie Facilier and CJ Hook. And we're not forcing anyone the leave the Isle that wants to remain, but we are working on it. And we have to exercise some caution as not everyone raised on the Isle is some mistreated innocent. We're not about to let people run roughshod over Auradon just because they were born on the Isle to start off," Regina assured her.

"It's good to know that so much attention to detail is being taken. And will you act as liaison for the new students coming next term as well?" Show asked.

"Yes. In addition, I've been hired on to teach economics and business administration at Auradon Prep for the next term. And I'll be offering seminars over the summer in town for kids that aren't attending the school that think the might benefit from them. I've found I have a penchant for teaching myself after helping to tutor Mal, Evie, and the boys while they were vetting me to gauge my intentions here in Auradon," Regina reported.

"And it's my understanding that you've filed the paperwork to formally take custody of Evie, Mal, Jay, and Carlos recently?" Snow prodded. This was something she had a personal interest in as she was looking forward to getting to know her stepsister in the form of Evie.

"That's right. After what happened with Maleficent and the... threats made by Grimhilde, it was decided to look over the homelife situation for all of the kids from the Isle attending Auradon Prep. Miss Facilier and Miss Hook had stable enough families despite their situations on the Isle, but Jafar, Cruella, and Grimhilde were found completely unfit. It was safer for me to sue for custody so they could not try to exert any influence over the kids in the future. All four of the original VKs agreed with the decision," Regina replied.

"And how are things going in that regard?" Snow asked.

"Mal seems to like me well enough, and Jay trusts me enough to ask for help with his homework. Carlos thinks its hilarious now to refer to me as 'Auntie' for some reason. And Evie... well she has taken to referring to me as 'Mom' on occasion," Regina admitted with a fond smile. "I could never replace Grimhilde, nor would I want to, but the fact she can see me in that way warms my heart. It tells me that maybe I can have a family, a life, here in Auradon."

"That is so sweet. I am so happy to hear things are going well for you," Snow gushed happily.

From there the interview continued a bit as more familiar matters were discussed like the burgeoning clothing design business Evie and Doug were starting at Auradon Prep as her designs grew more popular with the royal children in particular after they saw what she kept doing for Mal. Not to mention Mal's growing popularity in the kingdom and her talents as an artist. They discussed how Jay was excelling in athletics and becoming a respected leader among the boys of the school and Carlos' brilliant inventions and innovations what he was working on, many that could help improve the infrastructure of the Isle and make the lives of the citizens there a little better.

* * *

 _ **Storybrooke**_

Neal and Ruby were smiling in a similar manner to the Snow White in the TV as they were happy to see Regina was finding a real place for herself somewhere that wasn't judging her for her past.

Emma felt conflicted as she glanced between Henry and her mother, realizing that the looks on their faces meant they were going to try to get Regina back no matter what. And it seemed that Regina was happy. She wasn't conquering the world and raising hell somewhere. She was teaching kids math and raising a group of lost kids to make a kind of unconventional family for herself. Helping to give them the love she was denied as a kid when she had been all but sold off to Snow's father. Emma had real misgivings about even trying to mess with that.

David swallowed his misgivings as he saw a spark seem to ignite in his wife's eye. This was going to be trouble and he knew it. Regina was safe, contained, _happy,_ and out of the way. It was literally everything they could hope for and he knew Snow would want to rip her away from it regardless of what Regina thought. And he knew he would support his wife because that was just what he did. But he really didn't think it was a good idea or like their chances of succeeding. If this whole realm was seeing this interview as a way to get them to better accept Regina they might be facing far more resistance than from the missing Queen herself.

As for Mary Margaret, she felt something blossoming in her chest that she had not felt in many years as she watched Regina smile while talking about these kids she had basically adopted. This wasn't the Evil Queen talking. Nor was the frightening and powerful mayor of Storybrooke that kept everyone but Henry at arms length. No, this was someone Snow never thought she would see again. This was Regina, the _real_ Regina. The happy girl that Snow had loved and wanted as her mother, all grown up. And as she looked at her, an ugly part of her felt cheated that she was never the one to bring this woman back. But she would make certain to bring her home and make amends. They were a family and they would always be a family. It was what was best for Regina, after all.

Henry did his best not to scowl as his mom talked about those _other_ kids. He could see now that she hadn't thought she had replaced him with them. That she thought he didn't want her around. But that wasn't true and now Henry could admit it. They would bring her home and she could have her happy ending here in Storybrooke with him and those _villain kids_ could go on living their own lives with their own parents. His Mom needed to come back. They all needed her there.

* * *

Belle smiled as she listened to Regina talk about the children she had taken in. For all that she should have hated how Regina had tricked her and locked her away she really couldn't. Even if it was for selfish reasons it was Regina that had pushed Belle to confront her growing feelings for Rumple. To admit that he was her True Love. And, if things kept going as they were, in a weird way Regina herself might end up as her stepdaughter. Belle had no intention of stealing the "Evil Stepmother" title from the likes of Regina or Lady Tremaine.

As for Rumple, he felt deeply conflicted over the whole thing. It was clear that Regina was happy and making quite a little life for herself in this new realm. Part of him wanted no part in doing anything that would endanger that happiness. But another part of him loathed the idea of his daughter being separated from him. And the voices of the previous dark ones before him were all whispering and reminding him that Regina was _his._ Who were these other people to take away from the Dark One and keep him separated from his family? In his own way hadn't he already raised her himself to make her more than _Cora_ ever wanted her to be?

And so the man and the beast within his soul continued to argue back and forth even as Rumple started planning for ways to reach this Auradon place as he was well aware Snow at least could never leave well enough alone. And Baelfire deserved to at least have the chance to speak to his sister now that they found her, didn't he?

"She's happy Rumple. You can take some kind of comfort in that, can't you? That she's found some peace?" Belle offered, as if she knew exactly what to say to try to counter the insidious war going on within his mind.

"That she is Belle. Not that I think Snow won't insist on reaching her. And she deserves to know about and meet her brother, it nothing else," Rumple agreed.

"And you'll get a chance to meet all those new grandchildren of yours she went and adopted on you," Belle noted with a smile.

Rumple seemed to pause as if he had not really considered the kids Regina had taken under her wing and what they would be to him before smiling ruefully as he agreed, "Indeed. And hopefully some of them are slightly less precocious than Henry can be when he gets going. Regina really did spoil the lad without meaning to." Then, with a wave of his hand his dismissed the spying window he had made of of his mirror with a flourish as she smiled sardonically at his dearest Belle.

* * *

The Charmings watched the interview continue for a few minutes longer until the magic Emma provided finally seemed to exhaust itself and the TV returned to static on them. There were various exclamations of disappointment that their window into Regina's new life was over.

"Oh, don't worry, Your Majesties, Sheriff Swan can provide more energy to the hat to look in on Auradon any time not that everything is set up. I would just avoid doing it more than once or twice a day since you're not really experienced in regulating the amount of magic you're using and you can't risk damaging the hat itself as its the only stable potential portal to the realm," Paige interjected eagerly. She had been glad to help Henry and his family check on the missing Queen, and she was happy to see what her Papa had done for Regina had worked out so well.

"Thanks kid," Emma replied with a grateful smile at the ever-polite and helpful daughter of the Mad Hatter.

And with that said Ruby stood up with a smile as she noted that they had been watching Regina's interview far longer (and informative) than any of them expected, "It's getting kind of late for kiddies on a school night and I need to help Granny open the diner tomorrow anyway. What do you say I drive you home, Paige?"

"That would be wonderful, Miss Ruby," Paige agreed with a grateful smile. "Bye, Henry, I'll see you in school tomorrow. Thank you for having my in your home, Ms Blanchard, Sheriff Swan," the little girl added with a smile as the family echoed her farewells.

"Are you good for tonight Snow, or do you want me to come back later?" Red asked as she knew he best and oldest friend would need time to process all that they had heard.

"I'll be fine, Ruby. I'll talk to you tomorrow," Snow assured her with a grateful smile.

"Sounds good. See all of you later," Ruby exclaimed as she ushered Paige out of the apartment. As the pair headed off you could distinctly hear a mischievous voice ask "So kid, have you ever ridden in a '74 Camaro before?"

With the departure of Ruby the rest of the group seemed ready to break up as Neal got ready to help back to his father's shop while Snow and Henry both wanted to go somewhere quieter to think about what they had discovered. As for Emma she decided she needed a beer as she brooded over what she was learning and how it changed her mental picture of everything that went on both with Regina and in Storybrooke in general.

But it wasn't just people in Storybrooke listening in on the interview of Regina Mills. All though Auradon and the Isle of the lost various people had been watching what would prove to be one of the highest rated television programs of the year in the first year of King Ben's reign...

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_ Okay, finally got through the beast that was the interview. The next part will have reactions from the VK's, notable people in Auradon and some people from the Isle (yes this will include Uma and Ursula for those wondering.) As always I live for your feedback and look forward to your reviews and PM's. Please feel free to send any suggestions or questions you might have to me. It really helps me to flesh out the world in my head when I read your input.


	15. Chapter 15

_**Auradon**_

Evie was wiping tears from her eyes as she watched the interview Snow White had conducted with her, well technically new she supposed, Mom. Regina had suffered far worse than she had every imagined. And as a kid born and raised on the Isle of the Lost with Grimhilde for a mother, Evie had a very vivid imagination in regards to the kind of suffering people could endure.

"I... I had no idea," Carlos whispered hoarsely. Academically the original four VK's knew most of Regina's history, but to hear it live and in color from her own mouth put things seriously into perspective. It also solidified a thought in his head he hadn't really had up to that point. "Am I the only one that wants to track down Henry and smack him for how he acted with Auntie Regina?"

"Trust me, Carlos, there's no danger of you losing your spot as the cool little brother in the group. That snot sounds like he was cloned from a boil on Chad's butt or something," Mal scoffed in disgust. Although none of the rest of them had really verbalized it the same way Evie did, all of the original four Descendants had come to see Regina as something of a surrogate mother. She certainly made more of an effort to care for them than any of their biological parents did. And she wanted them to be happy. Mal still smiled a bit at the lecture she got when Regina caught her trying to use magic to make herself blonde because she thought it would be more acceptable for someone dating Ben to look more... princess-like.

 _If it's something you wanted to do in order to change your look and make yourself happy, that's fine dear. But I will not hear of you changing yourself to look for approval from someone else. Never mind that Ben loves the real you already. You'd be changing to placate a bunch of sycophants and media leeches looking for a story. I won't have you destroying yourself and crushing your spirit for the likes of_ them.

"I can't believe we started thinking of that twerp like he might be one of us if we met him," Jay lamented in disgust.

"Oh, he's still one of us, Jay. He just needs a wake-up call. Like when I put Gaston's idiot twins in their place back home. Or when Harriet knocks Harry down a few pegs. Whether we like it or not Regina will always see him as her son. Which means it would be our place to teach him to be an actual human being. It's what big brothers and sisters do," Mal responded with devious smirk.

"She is kind of better mom than any of us had. Except maybe for CJ. CJ's mom always seemed cool from what people said about her before she died," Carlos noted.

"They said she was way better than that skank Milah Hook was with and that gave birth to Harriet and Harry. That didn't make her good. She was still an inmate on the Isle," Mal argued.

"Guys, that doesn't matter right now. Regina is going to need us after having to talk about all of that to help cement her place in the kingdom," Evie cut in, ending the mini-argument.

"E's right. We all need to stick together. Regina is one of us. She's rotten..." Mal prompted.

"To the core," the other three finished, completing the motto of their personal crew from the Isle.

* * *

 _ **The Isle of the Lost**_

Uma, daughter of Ursula, snorted in derision from where she had been watching the interview in her mother's restaurant while she was busy washing dishes. "Wah, wah. I had a horrible life. Pity me. Give me a break," she spat disdainfully. From where she stood this Regina was just some washed up villain with a halfway decent con to keep her off the Isle. And on top of that she was apparently a fan of Mal's. Disgusting.

Her thoughts were cut short as she felt one of her mother's tentacles slapping her upside her head.

"Ow! Mom! What the hell was that for?" Uma demanded in shock.

"You were being an idiot. It's my place as your mother to try to knock some sense into you before you go and do or say something stupid, my Little Guppy," Ursula sardonically replied from where she was manning the fish fryer. It always gave the sea witch a little bit of satisfaction to watch the remains of her idiot brother's subjects breaded and dipped into boiling oil. She liked to dream one day she would catch that little yellow and blue bastard that followed around her little niece. Or that pretentious crab that ran the royal band. With the nature of the barrier she knew it was impossible, but Ursula still liked to fantasize about it.

"What do you mean I was being an idiot? It was just some used up former villain with a sob story. So what?" Uma shot back in frustration.

"I didn't raise you to be a moron like half the kids in your crew, Uma. If you can't recognize and respect the danger a woman like that represents when you see it then I have no idea where I went wrong with you," Ursula growled back. "Even ignoring the fact she went through things you know still happen here that you were protected from as the child of major player, she lived through a kind of hell that makes this place look pleasant and used it to fuel and push her instead of breaking her. She might be looking to live an easier life now, but that woman is at least as dangerous as Maleficent was. And _she_ was ruling this place for twenty years uncontested for a reason."

Uma looked ready to protest again until she saw the look in Ursula's eyes. The respect and just the tiny bit of fear that had usually been reserved to talk about the Mistress of All Evil. "Okay, you might have a point. But now she's just another person hitched to that traitor Mal's little wagon. Why should I even care?" Uma insisted.

"Because for all that they claimed different, some parents here are already getting notices about their spawn going to Auradon and you're one of them," Ursula admitted.

"What?" Uma insisted in shock.

"Hmm. I thought that might get your attention. But I have been contacted about your going next fall. And I was considering accepting for you, but now I'm not so sure," Ursula pondered craftily.

"Why not? I mean, not that I care about what Auradon wants to give us but I could finally find a way to do what Mal refused to and free the rest of us. I could make a name for myself and-" Uma ranted until she was cut off.

"That, there, is exactly why. Your two biggest weaknesses are your obsession with getting even with Maleficent's daughter for rejecting you and cursing you to smell like rotten shrimp when you were seven, and your obsession with making people know your name. People will know you anyway if you do great things, Uma. You don't need to fight for recognition. It will come all on its own when those poor unfortunate souls come to you for aid in their time of need," Ursula counseled. "But your fixation on Mal is the really dangerous part. Especially now."

"But that little traitor-" Uma started.

"Did what any sensible person would do to get out of here when given half a chance. And has apparently been working with the new King to make this hellhole mildly more livable. But I know you'd still want to make a play against her. You've been at odds since you were both seven, after all. Right now I'm telling you specifically: don't," Ursula argued.

"But she-" Uma tried to defend.

"Isn't the important one here. Although how you can think it's a good idea to mess with someone powerful enough to call a curse that held inside this accursed barrier escapes me completely. But she isn't your concern. So she'll probably end up Queen out there. Who cares? I made my place in the Sea regardless of what little Triton did. But if you cross her in any way that can't be explained away it will bite you in ways much worse than getting shipped back here for the rest of your life," Ursula warned.

"What, you think Mal would hurt me or something?" Uma snorted, confident in her ability to defend herself.

"Without the barrier holding her back she fought Maleficent and won. If that doesn't scare you, I don't know what would. But no, you just saw who would kill you without a second thought right there on the TV. Or were your ears too clogged with barnacles to hear about how that woman dealt with those that hurt someone she cares about?" Ursula reasoned. "This is a woman that made it clear she would carve out Grimhilde's heart the hard way and have her begging to die over what old Queenie said about her daughter, and everyone in that room were damned sure she meant it. Out there she has magic on top of that nasty villain streak in her blood. You'd disappear and nobody would even know what happened to you if you were ever a serious threat to the kids she's taken under her protection. So, I'll tell you again, don't be stupid."

"Wait. I knew she was here with the suits from Auradon, but she threatened our Evil Queen?" Uma asked as she tried to process what she had heard.

"No, Guppy, it wasn't a threat, it was a fact. She held her by the throat and explained exactly what she would do. That isn't some prissy royal from Auradon afraid to get her hands dirty. That's the first real heavy hitter they've had since before you were born. And since they got to her first and offered her everything she could possibly want up front, they have her full loyalty. Trust me, you cross that woman without something like the Trident to even the playing field and she'll destroy you. You're quite the gang leader and pirate captain here, Uma, but you have never seen any of us fully unleashed. And on dry land I would be cautious about crossing this Regina Mills," Ursula explained.

And just like that, several plans Uma had made for what she would do if she was ever released from the Isle evaporated or drastically changed as she realized she would have to deal with more than just an irate Mal looking to get even with her if she succeeded.

* * *

"I'm suddenly very glad you didn't keep pushing things that day, EQ," Cruella noted as Jafar moved to turn off the television after the interview with Regina had ended.

"It's not like we didn't all live terrible lives at one point to get us where we are," Grimhilde defended weakly, still shell shocked at some of what she had learned.

"Oh come off of it. That woman is as dangerous as any of us and you know it. That Enchanted Forest place sounded like the fifth circle of Hell or something. How do you plan to fight someone that's lost everything she ever loved at least twice and came out stronger for it? She was willing to sacrifice her own father to do it once. That's not a mindset you tend to see often in Auradon," Cruella argued.

"Yes, I'm somewhat jealous of her for that one," Grimhilde conceded as she remembered what a cruel and wicked man her own father had been.

"Yes well apparently her father was a decent person and the only one to love her, and she still sacrificed him when push came to shove. That isn't some weakling to push around. She's a real leader. If the Sultan had been anything like her instead of an overgrown child I would probably still be serving him as Grand Vizier," Jafar pointed out.

"It doesn't really matter for now, anyway. It's not like we have any say in the lives of the children now after that meeting. All we can do is focus on the new shipments coming in and the other improvements scheduled for the Isle. Until we find a way off this rock, what goes on in Auradon means very little to us," Grimhilde declared regally.

 _In other words, you're too scared to even try to challenge Regina again. Not that I blame you. I can always find someone new to fluff my furs. It's not worth my life to fight her,_ Cruella thought pragmatically.

"Still, it was nice to hear that the children are thriving there, wasn't it?" Jafar offered to the room, as much to gauge their reactions as anything else. Needless to say, he was not overly shocked by the forced disinterest his companions showed to his words. It seemed they both agreed that cutting their losses was the smart play.

* * *

 _ **Auradon**_

Jane and Audrey had watched the Regina Mills Exclusive Interview together in their shared dorm with with mounting horror as their soon to be new teacher's past unfolded in front of them.

"What kind of place was this Enchanted Forest? And that Storybrooke place didn't sound much better!" Audrey demanded. She had mostly stayed away from Ms Mills if for no other reason than she had no real ties to the woman. She had formed something of a more friendly rivalry with Mal that included sleepovers and a few magical mishaps involving other friends like Allie, Jordan, Freddie, Lonnie, and even CJ, here and there since Spirit Week, but she hadn't had much cause to talk to the new "den mother" for the VK's. And she hadn't really had much access to the reports sent to her parents about Regina either, so much of this was new information to her.

"I know. It's really sad. But Ms Mills is really a nice lady when you get to know her. I'm kind of looking forward to taking her classes next term," Jane replied with a sad smile.

"Wait, you've been hanging out with her? Since when? I mean I know you're closer to Mal and Evie than I am and you like talking about little nerdy things with Carlos, but how were you talking to EQ 2.0?" Audrey demanded, looking for gossip to take her mind off of what she had just seen, if nothing else.

"She's kind of become friends with my mom and Queen Belle both. They're the ones she really deals with most here, anyway. And my mom really likes her. Oh, and she bakes some terrific cookies if you're visiting her in her quarters on campus. And some of the best lasagna I ever had. She uses red pepper flakes to give just the right kind of kick," Jane all but gushed. As scary as she could be, Ms Mills grew on you rather quickly if you gave her a chance, much like Mal had when she first arrived in Auradon.

"You're hanging out with someone that was the Evil Queen in her world and she's baking you cookies and stuffing your face with pasta?" Audrey asked incredulously.

"Like I said, she's really nice once you get to know her. Evie and the others all adore her. Well, CJ is scared of her, but I'm not exactly sure why," Jane admitted.

"Probably had to do with her stopping the little wharf rat cold when she had delusions of leading Mal and the others back to evil. Like someone as powerful as Mal was going to go around following Captain Hook's youngest daughter. She's like a whole year younger than you and Carlos," Audrey sniffed derisively. She may have initially had a low opinion of Mal because of the issues between their families and their rivalry over Ben, but she could still recognize a true Alpha Female when she saw one. And Mal was clearly a leader from the moment she showed up. Evie could have been too if she wanted to make the effort, but she was clearly content being Mal's right hand.

"It's not just that," Jane denied.

"What do you mean?" Audrey asked, suddenly intrigued.

"I don't know what it is but Ms Mills really scares her. I asked Freddie about it and she said all she can get from CJ when she asks is some kind of weird rambling about ghosts returning from the past and her mother warning her to never cross the real Queen and to always follow her lead. And how CJ should have known better, she was raised better than that," Jane explained with a furrowed brow.

"That's... really weird." Audrey admitted.

"I know. But if you push any further, all CJ will say it's a family thing, then try to laugh it off. But I know she she would never go against Regina if she could avoid it," Jane agreed with a shrug.

* * *

"Well I think that accomplished everything you wanted from a propaganda point of view, dear," (former) King Adam noted as he and Belle watched the end of the interview alone in their study.

"I certainly hope so," Belle responded pensively.

"Why were you so adamant about releasing this and getting the majority of the kingdom to support Regina so soon? You know she's not connected to... our past," Adam asked gently. "And the Royal Council was mostly behind her already, anyway."

"Call it a hunch, but I don't think they'll just give Regina up so easily where she came from. Especially once they realized what they lost. And I won't have them ruining her happiness. Especially not that... imp," Belle spat.

"With the power we have available to us they're not going to force her to go anywhere. You had Fairy Godmother set up the new travel wards to help keep Rumplestiltskin out yourself. And you know she would never leave Evie and the other kids," Adam responded, suddenly thrust into something of a role reversal as he tried to soothe his wife's temper for a change.

"I know, but I can't help but worry. And Regina deserves her happiness here. And I intend to protect it, no matter what," Belle insisted.

"I know. Will you be coming to bed soon? We have the option to retire early for a change now that Ben is settling in to his place as King," Adam prodded.

"That sounds wonderful dear. But I have a few things to do first. Wait for me?" Belle asked with a gentle smile.

"Always," Adam agreed as she took his wife's hand in his and kissed the back of it gently before retreating off toward their bedchambers. "And dear, be careful." he warned as she exited.

"I will," Belle agreed with a sad smile as she turned and made her way to the bookshelf before moving a specific sequence of books around until they triggered a latch and revealed a hidden passageway hidden behind the bookshelf. She made her way through the dimly lit corridor into what looked like a sealed dungeon room filled with dusty arcane books and, in the center of the room, a covered vanity with an ornate mirror.

Belle removed the dust cover from the Vanity and lit the two candles that surrounded a saucer with a chipped cup placed right in the center of the dresser top. The Queen mother carefully reached into her gown and took out a small blue bottle for where the usually hid it while she left it hanging from her neck by a silver chain. She opened the vial and carefully poured a single drop of glowing blue dust into the cup before picking it up and blowing into it gently until the dust hit the mirror.

The moment the dust touched the mirror it flashed for a moment with a blue light before clouding up for a second only to clear and reveal a sneering gold-toned face surrounded by stringy curled hair.

"Hello, dearie. I didn't expect to hear from you again so soon. My, my, my but you are still looking positively disgusting with that face, aren't you?" the figure in the mirror sneered.

Belle sighed a bit before steeling herself as she looked into the unnaturally large eyes of the figure before her and resignedly responded with just a hint of an accent more akin to her counterpart in Storybrooke, "Hello, Rumple."

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_ I know this is a terrible place to end this and it makes for a very short chapter, but it's just such as perfect Once Upon a Time cliffhanger moment that I couldn't help myself. I could actually hear the dramatic violin music they use to emphasize a cliffhanger as I wrote it. This of it as a kinf of epilogue to the last chapter if you must. Lol

And yes, for those that caught it, I'm going with Disney's original idea that Ursula was in fact King Triton's sister. That makes both of them children of the Sea God Poseidon and makes Ariel Ursula's niece and Uma's cousin.

Anyway, as always, your feedback and reactions are what keep me going in doing this and I eagerly look forward to your reactions to this part. Now that the interview and reactions are done things can start picking up properly again with the main plot. I look forward to your reviews and PM's.

Until next time everyone.


	16. Chapter 16

_**Auradon**_

For all that one would expect the furor following Regina's interview to reach a fever pitch given the compelling and frankly foreign nature of the trials she had suffered, it seemed to settle relatively quickly with little more than a few more friendly glances around the Capitol when Regina ventured outside of the Auradon Prep campus, and a few more kids speaking to her with a kind of hushed respect within the halls of the school.

Although part of that might have had more to do with the fact Regina never seemed to be without some kind of VK escort whenever one of the kids was not attending a class. Even CJ Hook and Freddie Facilier seemed to be pulling guard duty to make sure nobody got too personal in trying to talk to Regina. And the kids apparently managed to somehow rope Lonnie, the daughter of Mulan, Jane, and Jordan into the rotation as well. All in all she thought it was very sweet, but after a week or so of it she insisted that if she could live through all of that she could deal with some overly nosy people asking questions.

Honestly, the most annoying thing from Regina's perspective was the fan mail she suddenly found herself receiving. Queen Mother Belle had insisted it was something that happened to all of the well known royals to a degree, and that the school had even been screening the mail sent to the Descendants before she ever arrived in Auradon. (Jay in particular seemed to average at least five inappropriate letters a week, ten during Tourney game weeks, with an average or at least one with a questionable photo or "memento" in the form of women's undergarments included. Fairy Godmother had taken to letting Jordan help her dispose of them as the djinn girl felt somewhat responsible to watch out for Jay in an odd way since he was not only the child of her father's and Uncle Aladdin's greatest enemy, but he was technically part djinn himself.) Thus far, the kids had only been exposed to... more wholesome fan letters. And even those tended to leave Mal out of sorts as the notion of her being popular still disturbed her.

But Regina's letters seemed to be greatly skewed toward romantic overtures to help "heal her broken heart," much to her disgust and ire. She was getting a plethora of letters from men and women alike with everything from flowers and candy, to proposals for marriage, to even formal letters to begin courting her in the traditional manner. There were even those offering dating advice. The ones suggesting she would look adorable paired with Queen Merida of DunBroch (who while she had chosen to remain single and independent had never really shown any kind of romantic preference for either gender that Regina was aware of) were particularly odd. She could easily picture her Maleficent teasing her over all of the attention if she were there.

Although, and she would never admit this to anyone other than Fairy Godmother and Belle after copious amounts of wine with the two women one Friday evening, she did find the attention flattering. It was odd to her to be seen as not only desirable, but approachable. Since she was seventeen she was either the off limits young wife of Leopold, the dangerous Evil Queen to be avoided at all costs, or the frightening and unapproachable mayor for all but Graham. Having people beyond incorrigible flirts like Hook show an actual interest in her was a novel idea to the former Evil Queen. She had no intention of pursuing any of the efforts at that time, but they were still flattering.

And speaking of Hook, there had been an odd letter sent to her from the Isle of the Lost care of the local Hook offering his sword and those of his crew should she ever need it. It seemed an extremely odd offer, particularly when Regina had no interaction with the man beyond being in charge of CJ's well being while she was in Auradon. But the tone of the missive was a very formal declaration of aid bordering on service to the crown and made no sense at all to Regina. Nor did the somewhat worried look Belle had sported when she reported the note to her and Fairy Godmother. Or the way the Queen mother had quickly tried to change the subject. Although the explanation she was given that Hook likely took umbrage to discovering how Killian Jones had betrayed a deal with Regina and sought to somehow make up for what he saw as a smear on his honor as a pirate by offering aid he knew he could never actually provide from within the Isle did make some sense.

Still once the initial swell of attention died down, they were still confronted with the day to day operations of dealing with children and helping to protect Auradon itself in their own ways.

One issue in particular that managed to resolve itself far quicker than expected was when Zevon, 18 year old son of Yzma, and the culprit behind the theft of Jafar's scepter and what he apparently thought were "heritage gems" that would allow him to control each of the Descendant kids and bring out their personal evil, made himself known. He first approached young CJ for aid in his plot, knowing the 14 year old girl had quite the crush on him. The girl played along until he snuck off into the shadows once more only to immediately report the boy and his intentions to Regina directly. Which, in turn, left Zevon in for a very rude awakening when he decided needed to take out Regina in order to bring the VK's under his control.

"I do apologize, my beautiful senora, but you have already destroyed my enchantment on Mal's gem and that will make it much more difficult to convince her to become my new Queen. I'm afraid I'll have to destroy you," the swarthy young Latin boy had boldly declared as he "cornered" Regina in her office one evening. With that said he sent a wave of energy at the former Evil Queen with Jafar's staff that was meant to incapacitate her.

Instead, it broke like a literal wave upon the shore as Regina shrugged off the attempt to harm her. Regina gave the boy her best mildly annoyed glare as she made a single gesture with her right hand and telekinetically ripped the scepter from the young man's grasp, then made a second gesture that summoned branches out of her favorite black and while apple tree wallpaper in her office at Auradon Prep that reminded her of the color scheme used in both her office and her study back in Storybrooke and used them to bind the fool to the wall. She idly noted that David put up much more of a fight before he was similarly caught out before calling for Fairy Godmother and Belle to join her.

"Ladies, I give you the source of the problems. Apparently he thought he could assassinate me before using his magic to compel Mal to 'be his queen'," Regina presented with a sneer. Personally, she could care less about the attempt on her life. Better than Zevon had tried and failed to do the same over the years. But what that one little sentence about "his queen" implied for Mal... oh he would _suffer_ for that one.

"Hmm, you might want to loosen the branch around his mouth so we can ask him a few questions, Regina," Fairy Godmother noted with a stern look at the boy.

"I suppose you're right. There are a few things I need to ask him. Like how he got here from the Isle as the story he told CJ the other day made absolutely no sense since all of the kids got back here through Jordan's lamp," Regina agreed as she motioned with two fingers and the branch gagging the would-be sorcerer faded away.

"You can't do this to me! I am Zevon, son of Yzma, and you will all bow before me," he spat only to go wide-eyed and quiet as Regina summoned a fireball and gestured lazily toward his crotch with it.

"Regina, was that really necessary?" Fairy Godmother demanded.

"Considering he was already using that jewel he had slipped her to alter Mal's personality and was talking about making her his Queen, which sounds suspiciously like using magic to control her mind and _rape_ her to me, you'll find I have very little mercy in me if he doesn't feel like cooperating," Regina sniffed back disdainfully.

Zevon didn't know if the cold look on Regina's face of the scowl and nod of agreement on Belle's scared him more in that moment. Still he protested, "Mal is a villain! The greatest of us! I just wanted to return her to who she really was."

"That is for _her_ to decide you little insect, not you. And I can be very sure Yzma would agree with me on that," Regina snarled as she took a step toward him only to be held back by both Fairy Godmother and Belle.

"Now, Zevon, was it? Why don't you tell us exactly how you came to be in Auradon instead of the Isle?" Fairy Godmother asked if only to get things moving before Regina truly lost her patience.

The boy seemed, however, to regain some of his bravado at the gentle questioning from the most powerful fairy in Auradon as he cockily looked back at her and replied, "I swam. It is an island, after all."

"Yes it is," Fairy Godmother agreed. "But the bigger question is how you got outside of the barrier surrounding the Isle?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Zevon sneered back.

"Oh enough of this," Regina spat as she aggressively took off her sport coat and started unbuttoning and rolling up her right sleeve in agitation. She made it two steps this time before Fairy Godmother blocked her path. "Move," she warned with a glare.

"Regina, what are you doing?" Fairy Godmother asked, ignoring the murderous look in the former Queen's eyes.

"I'm putting a stop to this and getting the information we need on the security breech around the Isle," Regina replied with confidence.

"And how are you planning on doing that?" Fairy Godmother asked with a nervous chuckle.

"By ripping the little twerp's heart out. Once I do that I can make him tell us whatever we want," Regina replied as she looked over the fairy's right shoulder right into Zevon's eyes and gave him a dark grin. She had to admit that she felt a little thrill at the look of terror dawning across his face as he saw that smile. _Still got it,_ she thought to herself with a sense of satisfaction.

"Regina, I know you're upset but that is _not_ how we do things here," Fairy Godmother protested.

"He wanted to control and rape a girl I consider a daughter just as much as I do Evie. He's lucky I haven't castrated him with a fireball," Regina retorted with a snarl. But her look of dark amusement returned as she added blithe, "Yet," to the statement.

"Fairy Godmother, get out of the way," Belle said as she finally interjected herself into the conversation.

"But Your Majesty, what Regina is suggesting-" Fairy Godmother began only to be cut off mid-sentence.

"Is part of what we asked her to do in order to protect the children, and you know it. You know as well as I do that many in Auradon have grown a bit too complacent after two decades of total peace. And that sooner to later a new generation of villains would rise whether it's from the Isle itself or from those looking to profit somehow here in Auradon from the suffering of others. Either way the entire Royal Council agreed that Regina would be an invaluable resource in dealing with those that would do harm to Ben and those close to him. This is a villain matter. Please leave it to an actual expert in how they think," Belle ordered.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Fairy Godmother agreed in a cowed tone as she stepped aside to stand beside Belle but looked away as Regina strode toward Zevon's bound form.

"Wait, you can't! Heroes are supposed to ugh-" Zevon protested right until Regina's hand plunged into his chest and removed his heart.

"Why dear, whatever gave you the impression I was a hero? I work with them. I help to teach them. But at the end of the day the best thing you could ever say about me is that I'm a very protective mother. But a hero? No, only Snow White was ever foolish enough to call me that, and we all know what I thought of _her,_ don't we?" Regina purred as she gave the heart the the barest squeeze, making Zevon writhe in pain.

She watched his suffering with a kind of detached interest for a moment until Belle finally prompted, "Regina. The barrier?"

"Oh very well," Regina replied with a put upon sigh. She then brought the glowing enchanted heart to her lips as she whispered, "Now Zevon, tell us how you got through the barrier and came to Auradon."

Zevon tried to resist, but resistance was pain until he finally broke and replied as if in a trance, "There's a weak spot in the barrier. It's small but it's there. It has been since the girl Jane cracked it and released Maleficent."

"Where is this weak spot?" Regina interrogated.

There was another pause, but it was far shorter this time before Zevon responded, "It seems to float around, but it's mostly underwater in the more shark-infested areas near the Isle, closer to Hook's territory than Uma's."

"And are you the only one to make use of this weak point?" Regina demanded.

This time there was no hesitation as Zevon robotically answered, "Yes. Most people would be killed by the sharks before they ever tried. I had to bring Kronk with me to use his animal speaking gift to talk to them and let me pass."

"And did Kronk come with you?" Regina asked.

"No. He would never leave my mother. She's getting on in years and he's the only one there to take care of her," Zevon admitted. "Besides, the weak spot is too small for him to try to fit through. I barely made it before I ended up almost drowning myself. And most people from the Isle can't swim anyway."

"How many people know about the weak spot?" Regina whispered into the heart.

"Almost nobody. Just me, Kronk, and my mom. Uma might have heard rumors about it but would never check unless she had a way to take her crew too. Most people that hear about it think it's just a rumor," Zevon, admitted.

Regina pulled the heart away from her face as she looked at Fairy Godmother and Belle and asked, "Anything else we need to know before we deal with him and work on sealing up the barrier properly again?"

"I think we're good," Belle noted with a hard look at Zevon as he started to come out of the trance of Regina whispering to his heart. She was no more appreciative of what he had planned for what was for all intents and purposes her future daughter-in-law than Regina was.

"Good," Regina purred malevolently as she she squeezed the heart just a little harder this time, making Zevon cry out in pain as he broke out into a cold sweat. It felt like his chest was filled with pulses of icy fire every time Regina put pressure on the organ.

"That's enough, Regina," Fairy Godmother insisted, greatly disturbed by what she was seeing.

"Is it? Would you feel the same if it was Jane he was planning on violating with his little plot? She was already getting caught up in his plans, being shrunk and sealed into Jordan's lamp by Mal under the direction of his spell. What if he decided he preferred a magical harem? Your daughter is already showing great potential," Regina argued as she alternated adding and relieving pressure just enough to make Zevon's life an agony.

"That's doesn't mean you can just torture and execute him here," Fairy Godmother insisted.

"Oh, I have no intention of killing him. In fact I'll be happy to see him tossed back onto the Isle right after we fix the barrier. After all, he's going to be my little messenger and my message all rolled into one. We will not tolerate attacks on anyone in Auradon. Especially not Mal, Ben, or any of their friends. Anyone that tries it will answer to me. And they will learn a hard lesson that this is as merciful as I will ever get with any of them," Regina swore as she emphasized her point with another squeeze of Zevon's heart.

The former Queen turned her attention back to Zevon fully as she asked, "Do you understand that boy? That I will do whatever it takes to protect me and mine? And that definitely includes Mal and King Ben. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not exactly pleased with how you tried to manipulate the affections of a fourteen year old _child_ to try to get her to do your dirty work, either. So you will carry this message back. And you will remind them that even if it gets me sent to the Isle like any other villain I'll protect my own. And I will _slaughter_ the next fool that comes to Auradon looking to hurt my loved ones. Do you understand me?"

"Yes," Zevon stuttered out in terror. He knew in that moment he was staring death herself in the eye.

"Good boy," Regina purred as she painfully thrust Zevon's heart back into his chest and released him from his imprisonment with a gesture, watching dispassionately as he fell bonelessly to the floor in a heap. "Fairy Godmother, can I assume you can handle having security taking him to an anti-magic room and watching him until we work out the best way to re-secure the barrier?" Regina asked as she fixed her sleeve and re-buttoned the cuff of her shirt without even looking at Zevon's crumpled form.

"I... yes. I'll get right on that," Fairy Godmother said in a rush, suddenly wishing to be anywhere but in Regina's office. They were definitely going to have a _long_ talk later about what just transpired. But for now she had to deal with the immediate concern that was Zevon.

It took less than five minutes for the exhausted and still suffering young man to be literally dragged from the room with Fairy Godmother trailing behind to help keep an eye on him. Regina watched him go while seated at her desk working on paperwork until the door to the room was closed before her eyes welled up in tears while she grabbed the nearest wastebasket and started throwing up violently into it several times until she was literally dry-heaving. All through the episode Belle just rubbed her back and offered soothing comfort to the woman as she came to terms with what she had just done.

"I... I never wanted to be like that again. To act like the Evil Queen. Not here. Not now," Regina lamented as the emotions she had so carefully suppressed came forcefully to the surface.

"I know. And I know what we might ask you to do is difficult to accept in order to protect Ben and Mal in particular. But you did what you had to in order to defend all of Auradon. And especially to protect Mal. That wasn't evil, Regina. It may not have been very _nice_ , but it wasn't evil." Belle soothed.

"I tortured a boy no more than two years older than Mal and Evie. I ripped out his heart and played with it like a cat with a wounded mouse," Regina protested.

"And he showed up here trying to kill you because you made his plan to control and rape Mal more difficult. Between the two of you, I'll take your actions over his," Belle replied with a hard look.

"I know, but there had to be a better way. A way... Fairy Godmother was looking at me the way Henry and Miss Swan did. Like I'm a monster," Regina tried to explain.

"I understand. And maybe in some ways there's a bit of monster in you. But if there is it was made by people like Rumple and Cora. And you have the choice of using that monster to hurt people or to protect them. Today you used it to protect. That's not something to regret Regina. Not about something like this," Belle explained.

"How can you be so forgiving about how I just acted?" Regina asked.

"Did you forget that my husband spent his life from childhood until his early twenties under a fairy curse to be in the form of a very temperamental and dangerous Beast?" Belle asked with a wry smile. "If I could find the good in him, I think I can find it in an upset mother that's dry-heaving over getting a little rough with the young man that just tried to assassinate her."

"Like he's the first person to ever try to kill me," Regina snorted as she tried to regain some composure.

"Yes, well, let's hope he's the last one to try it anytime soon," Belle replied with a sad smile.

Regina gave a wistful smile as she replied, "Dear, I'm never _that_ lucky."

* * *

Word spread about the assassination attempt on Regina within a couple of days, although that was time enough to find the weak spot in the barrier and fix it, as well as return a deeply traumatized Zevon to the Isle of the Lost so he could spread the word of the dangers of crossing Regina and those under her protection.

Regina spent the next few days on leave from her duties beyond helping to repair the barrier and it was almost two weeks before things started to feel normal in Auradon again. She spent most of that time with the VK's, teaching Mal some of her favorite recipes and Evie some of the finer skills Regina had learned as a young noblewoman such as embroidery techniques that she could incorporate into some of her dress designs. She also made sure to spend extra time with Jay and Carlos, if only because the boys felt somehow responsible for not anticipating and stopping Zevon's "attack" on her and wanted to make sure she was safe.

She also had several long discussions with Fairy Godmother over the whole incident that gave them both a better perspective on where each of them was coming from. The fairy had to admit she might have been similarly angered if Jane would have been Zevon's target, but she still felt Regina's response was extreme. Regina understood that life in general was softer in Auradon but she could not really regret anything about the incident beyond how it upset Fairy Godmother. Still, the pair managed to find something of a common ground again and peace was restored between them.

Which left them with the unenviable task of going over the reports about which kids would come to Auradon Prep from the Isle in the coming term. Uma was Mal's personal recommendation, along with a note to find a way to lift the curse she had somehow placed on Uma as a child that made her hair perpetually smell like rotten shrimp before she started classes. Likewise, Evie had personally sponsored Dizzy Tremaine, daughter of Cinderella's stepsister Drizella, who by all accounts was a tremendously sweet and innocent child that Evie saw as something of a surrogate little sister. Both of those were relative locks from where Regina sat.

And, despite some misgivings from King Adam, Gaston's youngest son Gil looked to have potential as a student in Auradon. He wasn't the brightest child by all accounts, but he didn't have a reputation for malevolence and violence either, and was seen as a relatively easy-going person by most. Something that actually got the boy bullied by both his father and his elder twin brothers, both named imaginatively enough Gaston Jr., for not being manly enough. There was also a note in his file that showed Gil might have some interest in other boys, but Auradon was thankfully progressive enough that Gil's romantic preferences wouldn't make much a difference either way.

One of the candidates on the proverbial bubble was Hook's middle child, Harry. Mal said that despite being Uma's 'first mate' that Harry wasn't all that bad. Especially if his elder sister Harriet was there to ride herd over him. Of course there was some debate on whether Harriet Hook would even want to come to Auradon as some speculated she had no intention of giving up her territory as "queen bee" of the biggest school on the Isle, Dragon Hall. Jay, conversely, was adamant that the middle Hook child had no place in Auradon Prep.

So it was that Regina decided to go the best source possible for information on Harry Hook, namely his little sister, CJ.

"Now, Miss Hook, what are you thoughts on the possibility of your older brother Harry coming to school here?" Regina asked as she interviewed the girl with Fairy Godmother in a conference room in the administrative wing of the school used for staff meetings.

CJ's eyes went wide in terror for a moment before she began to hem and haw as she searched for an answer to the question.

"Now, now, there's nothing to be afraid of. It's just that we're unsure at this time if he would be a good fit here and want to know more. If you prefer, nothing you say here will ever leave this room," Regina assured the girl.

The young blond nodded in understanding before she finally blurted out, "Then I think it's a _terrible_ idea to bring Harry here, Your Majesty!"

Regina looked genuinely shocked at the passion in the girl's words ask she replied, "And may I ask why you think it would be a bad idea?"

"Well, Harry refuses to learn to read and write for one. He says a pirate doesn't need such things and ignored my mum when she tried to teach him. He can't even tell time," CJ insisted urgently.

"I can see where that would be an issue, but I'm sure the school could arrange remedial courses to try to catch him up a bit," Regina responded, but that only seemed to agitate CJ further.

"But that's not all. Harry. He's-" CJ tried to explain.

"What is it, Miss Hook?" Regina asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Look, he's still my big brother and I love him. Our family are probably the only people he cares for outside of Uma and her crew. But he's not right in the head. Some of the crew whisper that he took too much after Milah, his and Harriet's mother. That she left the worst of herself in his blood when she died giving birth to him," CJ admitted. "He's... mean. And he _likes_ hurting people. He gets _upset_ when the people he shakes down on Uma's order pay up immediately because he doesn't get to hurt them. And he'll pout if Uma tells him not to hurt someone. He can't come to a place like this, Ms Mills. He's _dangerous._ " CJ explained desperately.

Regina looked the girl in the eye for a good ten seconds before she gently asked, "Has Harry ever tried to hurt you, CJ?"

"Wha? No! Harriet would kill 'im before he made so much as a scratch on me, and Papa wouldn't be far behind her ready to keel haul him. Besides, even if he's not right in the head he still loves and respects his family. My mom made sure he learned that before she died. And she was really the only mom any of us ever had the chance to know," CJ answered confidently. "But he'd still try to hurt people here. And he's had a bad grudge with Jay since they were kids because he's not strong enough to try to hurt Jay."

"Mal indicated that she didn't think he was too bad," Regina pointed out as she looked over Harry's file again.

"That's because he used to have a huge crush on her. Harry has always followed people that were strong and took no flak, like my -our really- mom was. Mal was strong enough he would respect her so he would tone it down around her. It's the same reason he follows Uma even though Papa was upset he chose to be a first mate rather than a captain in his own right the way Harriet is," CJ explained.

"I see. I thank you for your candor, CJ. I promise I will take what you said into consideration in the matter. Now, if you'd like to go, I believe Miss Facilier and Jane are waiting to meet you for lunch in the cafeteria," Regina commented. It was all that had to be said for the Hook girl to all but vanish fast enough to leave an after-image in her place.

If there was one thing you could say about CJ Hook it was that she fell in love with the food in Auradon. In fact she had developed such as penchant for bear claws that if Regina didn't know any better she would swear the girl was a miniaturized version of Emma Swan. They certainly had the same shade of wavy blonde hair and the same penchant for red leather coats, even if CJ's was a full length coat in a pirate motif reminiscent of her father's.

"Well I think it's safe to say it might be better to go with Jay's recommendation against Harry Hook, than with Mal's tentative approval," Regina commented once the girl had left the room.

"The way she described him was a little disturbing. Especially for a younger sibling talking about her big brother," Fairy Godmother agreed.

"She basically called him a raging psychopath without bothering to say the actual words," Regina pointed out. "And his refusal to learn basic skills like reading and telling time would have been a concern anyway. You heard how she worded that. It wasn't that he couldn't, it was that he _refused_ to learn."

"Point taken. I'll forward to King Ben that we both agree to refuse Harry Hook's release and recommend some kind of psychological evaluation of him with the possibility he might need anti-psychotic medication," Fairy Godmother responded as she made a note to that effect.

Regina sat back from where she was working at the end of the table and pinched the bridge of her nose as she noted with a sigh, "I really wish we didn't have to worry about kids that might need anti-psychotic medication as part of the process of vetting them for school and getting them out of that damned prison colony."

"I know. I wish we could have been doing this ten or fifteen years ago to catch any issues before they became so deeply ingrained. But the political climate at the time was still far too unstable. People were actually terrified that the baby boom hitting Auradon was mirrored on the Isle," Fairy Godmother recalled.

"Hmph. As if the villains and minions there weren't in as much need of physical comfort as anyone else. What did they expect in an unmonitored co-ed prison colony with no access to contraceptives?" Regina asked with a roll of her eyes.

"I don't think many of the general citizens realized that villains were still people with basic human needs too," Fairy Godmother admitted.

"Gods protect us from judgmental peasants that don't think things through. They're the same in every realm," Regina commented with a deep sigh.

"I know. But back on topic, should we keep it to three, four if Harriet Hook will accept coming here? The burden will be a lot lighter with Sherwood Academy and some of the other schools pledging to pitch in and accept kids from the Isle," Fairy Godmother noted.

"That may be best for now," Regina agreed tiredly. "And Sherwood just wants the kids because they're hoping for their own versions of Jay and Carlos to help them in Tourney and Fencing next term. They've been complaining that Auradon Prep basically brought in ringers despite neither boy having done either sport until they came here."

"I wonder what they would say of they knew I basically forced Jay and Carlos to join the Tourney team to cut down on their roughhousing in class?" Fairy Godmother asked with a titter of a laugh.

Regina smiled in response as she replied, "Probably still complain. Sherwood seems overly competitive with AP where sports are concerned."

"They always have been. They are the two biggest schools in the general region. Academic decathalon gets pretty bad too," Fairy Godmother pointed out.

"In other words, expect complaints over how well Evie and Doug do in next weeks Aca-Deca meet," Regina groaned.

"Afraid so. Especially since Jane and Carlos are on the team too," Fairy Godmother agreed.

"How do they manage to shoehorn politics and jockeying for position into something as mundane as a school rivalry?" Regina asked

"It's just a talent I guess. Either way, we'll be there to support the kids," Fairy Godmother pointed out sunnily.

That thought actually made Regina smile as she agreed, "We will at that."

* * *

 _ **Author's note:**_ Okay, dark start with a fluffy finish. I know, I know. Three chapters in as many days. Don't get used to it. Lol.

And no, I did not address the cliffhanger right away. I have to let that one percolate a bit so you can all speculate on what it means. I will say that no, that wasn't the Rumple back in Storybrooke, and no Belle is not the Dark One in Auradon. Good guesses, but way off. The Rumple in the mirror also has no influence over Auradon and you'll notice Belle didn't look all that thrilled to be talking to him, so no they are not secretly working together. This one is pretty complex so I doubt anyone that I haven't talked with a lot in PM's will get where I'm going, but I promise it will be a fun ride.

Once more, it was your flood of responses to the last couple of chapters that pushed me to work like I did. Well that and a bunch of free time. Please keep the feedback coming to feed the muse.

Until next time.


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